Shares of Novavax Inc. gained 12.1% in trading on Tuesday after President Joe Biden mentioned that the company’s experimental COVID-19 vaccine may be nearing emergency-use authorization in the U.S. “The problem is right now we have to make sure we have other vaccines like Novavax and others coming on,” he said during a speech. “And I think we’ll be in a position to be able to share vaccines with other countries who are in real need. That’s the hope and expectation.” Novavax’s still-investigational COVID-19 vaccine is currently being tested in a Phase 3 clinical trial in Mexico and the U.S. that began in December. (A separate late-stage study in the U.K. is also underway, and early data from that trial found that the vaccine candidate had an overall efficacy rate of 89.7%.) Novavax’s stock has soared 126.0% so far this year, while the S&P 500 is up 11.5%.
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