Preliminary results of the trial of the anti-Covid vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNtech, which could be distributed in a few weeks in the U.S., have given so comforting prospects that has pushed the Dow Jones to a new historical high intraday in the early hours of Monday’s trading at 29,933.83 points, scoring (at 16 and 15 Italian time) an increase of 4.23%. The S&P 500 advances by 3.12%, while the Nasdaq Composite by 1.32%.

According to the preliminary study, which involved 44,000 volunteers, the vaccine proved to be able to prevent infection in 90% of cases. The results regarding the efficacy of the other vaccines had never exceeded 70%, which is why the BioNtech CEO, Ugur Sahin, described the results of the new Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine as “extraordinary”. “This shows that Covid-19 can be controlled,” Sahin added, “in the end this is a victory for science.

Market reaction: price lists

About twenty minutes after opening, BioNtech shares are up 18.55% and Pfizer shares are up 7.29%. European Scholarships also reacted enthusiastically to the encouraging data of the study: the Euro Stoxx 600 is up by 4.08%, with a net blaze following the publication of the interim results of the Pfizer/BioNtech trial.
Meanwhile Zoom, the company that benefited from the boom in online video conferencing, has now lost 20% today. Other lockdown actions, such as Amazon, Netflix and Shopify, also fell sharply.

Pfizer: “Everyone’s in a state of ecstasy

“This is the best possible news for the world, for the United States and for public health,” said William Gruber, Pfizer’s senior vice president of vaccine research and clinical development, a result that exceeds the pharmaceutical company’s own expectations. “Everyone is in a state of ecstasy,” he added. There are still legitimate reasons to remain cautious. The analysis conducted so far has not yet involved groups of elderly people or people who had contracted the most serious forms of the disease, Pfizer’s vice president said. For the time being, however, the stock exchanges have already decided to celebrate.

Among the major vaccines under development, Pfizer’s and BioNtech’s was the only one not to have received funding from the U.S. government, which, however, had already secured a supply of 100 million doses, with an option to reach a total of 600 million.