There’s no such thing as a perfect trial.
Fortunately, there are safeguards in place to stop trials in the event of a mishap. We’ve seen two just this week, which could put a good deal of pressure on their stocks.
Hopefully, the events won’t prevent these companies from moving forward for long.
Shares of Eli Lilly (LLY) are under pressure. “Safety is of the utmost importance to Lilly,” an Eli Lilly spokesperson told Fox Business. “We are aware that, out of an abundance of caution, the ACTIV-3 independent data safety.
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) is under pressure, too after a halt. This is now the second time it’s had to pause testing as it races towards a vaccine, says Bloomberg.
“We’re going to have to get used to hearing these sorts of reports of pauses,” Hassan Vally, an associate professor in epidemiology at La Trobe University in Melbourne, said by email. “As you vaccinate more people in these trials the chances are that there will be some illnesses in participants. The only difference here is that in the world that we live in right now, the progress of these trials is in the public eye, and so we are riding every bump.”
Right now, we’re unaware if the participant received the placebo or the vaccine.
At the same time, this does demonstrate that companies do have great safeguards in place. “One adverse event is serious, especially when you’re considering a vaccine that you’re going to roll out to tens, hundreds of millions of people, maybe even billions,” said Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, a former health advisor in the Obama administration. “That’s the ultimate concern.”
At the same time, keep an eye on both stocks as potential buy opportunities.
While both are slipping, trial resumption could see both recovery quickly.
