(Bloomberg) — Rising human cases of bird flu are luring day traders to buy shares in vaccine developers. It’s a familiar setup to industry veterans who have witnessed previous trading frenzies at the first signs of a breakout.
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Shares of CureVac NV, which has an avian flu vaccine in early testing, rose 15% on Wednesday as concerns about a possible outbreak of bird flu in humans grow following reports of a new case in Australia. Novavax Inc. – which recently announced its plans to explore a bird flu vaccine – gained for the third day at the highest level since December 2022.
The shares of Moderna Inc. rose 2.9% in after-hours trading, while Pfizer Inc.’s. 1.4% gained after a report that the companies are in discussions with the US government about the development of vaccines against bird flu. Moderna and fellow Covid shotmaker BioNTech SE advanced double-digits in regular trading, while Pfizer rose 3.6%.
Read more: Second US human bird flu infection reported in Michigan
“Bird flu adds momentum to stocks that were already moving higher,” said Jared Holz, a healthcare specialist at Mizuho. “A lot of it is probably just a big picture – more retail-oriented trading as a result of these headlines linking the issues happening with bird flu to vaccine supplies.”
Previous outbreaks like Ebola, Zika and monkeypox have caused similar swings — especially among smaller players — as companies come out of the woodwork and tout their plans for a vaccine or treatment. Day trader chat rooms search for potential winners, but ultimately only a handful will emerge with successful treatments – if at all. Even fewer stocks end up becoming household names like Moderna or BioNTech.
So far, the stock’s reactions have been “fairly extreme,” Holz said. He recommended selling the strength because it is unclear so far whether the disease will spread or have any impact on revenues, although “the story is certainly gaining traction.”
Read more: US bird flu surveillance gets $100 million funding boost
Many of the vaccine names had already been jumped prior to the newly reported case. Shares of Novavax have soared since it signed a licensing deal with Sanofi two weeks ago – and announced its bird flu plans. A rally in Moderna shares began after a recent patent win against Pfizer.
–With help from Matthew Griffin.
(Updates with after-hours trading.)
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