By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Shares of companies making Covid-19 vaccines rose in Wednesday’s trade as CEO of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), one of the firms making the shots, said the jab may be needed every year.
Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) both rose 2%. The former’s vaccine is based on German company BioNTech's proprietary mRNA technology. The two have a tie-up to make and market the vaccine in geographies mutually distributed between the two.
BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX) shares were up more than 7%. J&J gained 1%.
CEO Alex Gorsky has spoken about there likely being a need for an annual jab, much like the flu shot.
“We could be looking at this tagging along with the flu shot, likely over the next several years,” he said, referring to the Covid vaccines. He was speaking at The Wall Street Journal’s Tech Health conference.
The U.S. is currently administering only Pfizer, Moderna and J&J vaccines. Elsewhere, vaccines made by Russia’s Gamaleya, the U.K.’s AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN), China’s Sinovac (NASDAQ:SVA) and Sinopharm and India’s Bharat Biotech are being given.
J&J’s is the only vaccine that requires just one jab.
While all vaccines are effective, experts point out that their efficacy wanes over time, and a booster dose may be needed every year.