Another session of strong decline for Valneva. With the 8% of this Wednesday morning, the sanction is heavy for biotech: -30% in the space of two sessions. The other values related to protection against Covid-19 also show new releases, even if they are much more limited. The manufacturer of laboratory equipment Sartorius Stedim loses 3% and the leader in bioanalysis Eurofins Scientific 1%, in a market which is growing slightly.
The sector remains affected by the multiplication of information confirming that the Omicron variant causes symptoms less severe than the previous ones, as an official of the World Health Organization also declared on Tuesday, which limits the need for a new vaccine. Valneva expects in the next few weeks the approval of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for its vaccine, mainly intended for first doses. The Americans Pfizer and Moderna have also been weighed down by this new scenario in recent days, but to a much lesser extent.
“Natural vaccination”
According to the latest studies, the Delta variant remains the most dangerous since the onset of the pandemic, while Omicron is, of course, more contagious, but less virulent, with less significant inflammation of the lung. ” The severity of Covid-19 is not so much due to the viral infection itself as to the inflammation caused by a strong discharge of pro-inflammatory proteins made during the activation of the immune system, yesterday reminded the firm Invest Securities, this is the famous cytokine storm. And precisely, with Omicron, the risk of developing a cytokine storm due to a runaway immune system would be lower. “
Therefore, people infected with the Omicron variant would develop better immunity. From there to considering using the variant as a means of natural vaccination, there is only one step, which logically stumbles the companies active in the field of the development of a vaccine.
“Omi-gone”
” With high spread and relatively low dangerousness, the Omicron variant could play the role of the vaccine by stimulating the immunity of infected people without endangering them., further indicates Invest Securities. This is exactly the principle of vaccination, with the difference that Omicron does not require any particular logistics, nor contracts to ensure the coverage of a population, nor deadlines for the manufacture and supply of the batches. This strategy therefore has several pecuniary, temporal and logistical advantages in addition to the reestablishment of a certain equity between the countries. “
Like Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at Oanda, Omicron is now called “Omi-gone” [parti], as if the pandemic risk, at least in a severe form, had largely dissipated. With logical reactions on the stock market: rise in equity markets, and in particular in values linked to the complete opening of economies, such as the transport and leisure sectors, tempered by a surge in bond yields, fall in securities linked to the health and more particularly the fight against Covid. With Valneva as the first victim.