Valneva’s wild stock-price rise continued on Monday after the French biotech said its coronavirus vaccine candidate outperformed AstraZeneca’s in a trial.
Valneva
VLA,
+36.67%
VALN,
+3.51%
shares rose as much as 42% after it said a Phase 3 trial showed its vaccine candidate, VLA2001, outperformed AstraZeneca’s
AZN,
-0.49%
in a trial of 4,012 people, with a significantly more favorable tolerability profile. Valneva said its vaccine produced more neutralized antibodies and there was a complete absence of any severe COVID-19 cases.
Even with Monday’s gain, the stock is still trading below its highs of September when the U.K. government terminated a supply agreement. Valneva said it will continue to work closely with the U.K. Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to complete its rolling submission for approal, and is preparing to start the process to get conditional approval with the European Medicines Agency.
European stocks more broadly traded lower after China reported slower-than-forecast third-quarter growth of 4.9% year-over-year.
Luxury-goods makers Kering
KER,
-3.10%
and LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton
MC,
-2.92%
declined after the disappointing Chinese numbers, sending the Stoxx Europe 600
SXXP,
-0.34%
down 0.4% to 467.65.
Of the major regional indexes, the German DAX
DAX,
-0.42%
declined 0.4%, the French CAC 40
PX1,
-0.77%
declined 0.7% and the U.K. FTSE 100
UKX,
-0.22%
declined 0.2%.
One advancer was THG
THG,
+10.30%,
rising 7% after the SoftBank-backed retailer said it will remove its special share rights. THG shares are now up 19% from last week, but down 60% for the year, on concerns that SoftBank
9984,
-0.83%
won’t trigger an option to buy a THG division.
The yield on the 2-year gilt
TMBMKGB-02Y,
0.729%
jumped 14 basis points, to 0.72%, after Bank of England Gov. Andrew Bailey said on Sunday the central bank will have to act to curb inflationary pressure.
