Novavax stock rises on Covid vaccine dispute settlement
Shares of Novavax (NVAX) are rising after the company moves to settle a dispute over a canceled Covid vaccine purchase agreement. The company will pay up to $475 million over the next 5 years to global vaccine organization, Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance.
Yahoo Finance Anchors Rachelle Akuffo and Akiko Fujita break down the latest development for the company and what it means moving forward.
For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.
Editor's note: This article was written by Nicholas Jacobino
Video Transcript
AKIKO FUJITA: Time now to take a look at today's trending ticker. And today, we're watching shares of Novavax-- surging after announcing it will settle a dispute over a canceled COVID vaccine purchase agreement. The pharmaceutical company terminated a purchase agreement with global vaccine organization Gavi back in 2022.
Now Novavax could pay up to $475 million to the organization over the next five years as part of the settlement. So $475 million, Rachelle, certainly a significant number here, but that's been the big overhang. The clearing of this uncertainty, really providing a leg up for the stock today in the session.
RACHELLE AKUFFO: It's true. And we know that Wall Street had been really waiting for a conclusion to this because you saw-- obviously, you saw Pfizer and Moderna pushing ahead. They got to have their post-pandemic story here. There was some certainty there. Now, Novavax gets to join in that discussion. They've been pushing ahead with trying to do some cost-cutting. It was hard to do when they still had this cloud hanging over them.
So it'll be interesting to see then not just what they do in terms of now that they have this potentially behind them. But now how they compete in the post-COVID world in terms of what's going to be their differentiator versus some of these other big pharma names that have already had a head start as a result of not having this hanging over their heads.
