Why Novavax Stock Tumbled 28% in the First Half of 2023

Shares of Novavax (NASDAQ: NVAX) lost 28% of their value in the first six months of the year, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence, extending a downtrend that began in early 2022. The pharmaceutical company's COVID-19 vaccine not only hit the market far too late to matter for the company (consuming time and resources that could have been used to develop vaccines that are more marketable now), but there's little else in the pipeline that can replace declining vaccine revenue.

It's not all bad news, though. A week ago, Novavax's Nuvaxovid received the European Union's full approval as a preventive vaccine for COVID-19. Shortly after that, the company announced it will receive partial payment for COVID-19 vaccine doses ordered by Canada's government that ended up being unneeded. The drugmaker is also working toward the development of a vaccine that specifically targets the newer XBB.1.5 variant of COVID-19.

None of this, however, changes the fact that the world simply doesn't need anywhere near the number of COVID-19 vaccines it needed two years ago. For Novavax, which has been hyperfocused on COVID-19, that's a problem.

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Source Fool.com