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Novavax shares sink premarket as going concern worries weigh

Published by Uma Rajagopal

Posted on March 1, 2023

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(Reuters) -Novavax Inc’s shares plunged more than 24% in U.S. premarket trading on Wednesday, a day after the COVID-19 vaccine maker raised doubts about its ability to remain in business.

The stock dropped as much as 24.4% to $7.0 by 5:30 a.m. ET (1030 am GMT), while its Frankfurt-listed shares fell 24.8%.

The company, which reported fourth-quarter earnings late on Tuesday, flagged significant uncertainty around its 2023 revenue and said that the U.S. government had not extended its agreement to buy its shots beyond December this year.

The going-concern disclosure is driven by near-term uncertainties, such as Novavax’s ability to deliver a variant-adaptive vaccine in time and grants from the U.S. government, said Jefferies analyst Rogers Song.

“While we continue to see sustained value from Novavax’s protein-based vaccine for the long run, we note a few key near-term uncertainties…leading to one-year going-concern disclosure,” Song said in a research note.

Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine had been expected to convince those skeptical about mRNA shots from rivals Moderna and Pfizer to get immunized, but the vaccine has been plagued by manufacturing and regulatory delays as well as sluggish uptake in key markets.

As of March 1, only 79,668 doses of Novavax’s vaccine were received by people in the United States, according to latest government data. The shot is the company’s first marketed product, after more than 35 years in business.

Shares of the company lost nearly 93% in value last year, marking their worst yearly performance on record. While the stock rose 6% in January this year, it posted its biggest February percentage loss since 2019.

As of last close, the vaccine maker’s U.S.-listed shares are down 97% from their February 2021 record high of $331.68.

(Reporting by Amanda Cooper in London, Amruta Khandekar and Bhanvi Satija in Bengaluru; Editing by Danilo Masoni and Uttaresh Venkateshwaran)