Sorrento Therapeutics Inc (SRNE)

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It is not how fast you get to market a drug, but how effective and safe it is to be successful.

U.K.-based AstraZeneca (AZN) this weekend released the protocols that describe its Phase 3 trials for its Covid-19 vaccine. Pfizer (PFE) and partner BioNTech (BNTX) as well as Moderna (MRNA) released their Phase 3 protocols last week.

"Based on the protocol designs, we think that PFE/BNT's BNT162b2 will take the lead and, depending on when the AZN trial restarts, MRNA's mRNA-1273 may follow," a team of analysts with investment bank SVB Leerink said in a research note Monday.

AstraZeneca was the first Covid-19 vaccine maker to start Phase 3, or final-phase, trials, in July. By the end of that month, Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna also began Phase 3 trials. Novavax (NVAX) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) say they will start Phase 3 trials as soon as this month.


On Sept. 6, AstraZeneca and its Covid-19 vaccine partner the University of Oxford paused their Phase 3 trials after a participant got seriously ill. On Sept. 12, the pair said they resumed Phase 3 testing in the U.K. after getting the OK from that country's Medicines Health Regulatory Authority. However, they have not yet said final testing has resumed elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Pfizer says it could have its first Phase 3 trial results before the end of October. And on Thursday, Moderna said its Covid-19 vaccine could get U.S. emergency use authorization in 2020.

AZN Stock, Other Biotech Stocks Plunge Amid Covid-19 Vaccine Push

On Sept. 8, AstraZeneca, BioNTech, Pfizer and Moderna were among nine companies to publicly pledge to put safety first in their Covid-19 vaccine development. Amid increasing political pressure for a vaccine, the companies pledged to do their work in accordance with "high ethical standards and sound scientific principles."
https://www.investors.com/news/technology/azn-stock-down-astrazeneca-lags-covid-19-vaccine-race/