New Delhi: Shares of drugmaker Pfizer Limited, the Indian arm of US-based Pfizer Inc., were trading up 5% on Tuesday at Rs 5385 in a weak Mumbai market on Wednesday after the United Kingdom (UK) approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for rollout from 'next week.' Pfizer shareholders have gained 63% since March after shares on November 10 touched its 52-week high of Rs 5875 a share in anticipation of vaccine news. The UK has become the first country to approve the Pfizer vaccine and the first western country to approve a vaccine against COVID-19.
"The government has today accepted the recommendation from the independent Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to approve Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine for use," the UK government said, adding that the vaccine will be made available across the UK from next week.
Pfizer CEO Dr. Albert Bourla called the UK's approval of the vaccine a 'historic moment' in the battle against COVID-19, according to reports.
It may be recalled that Bourla last month sold $5.6 million in company shares—on the same day it announced positive results from its Covid-19 vaccine, a move that is drawing scrutiny from some investors.
Like all suave investors, Bourla used the spike in Pfizer's share price to dump 62% of his holding on the same day it announced the vaccine. Pfizer's share jumped 15% on the day of the announcement.
He joins some top executives at other drugmakers that are in pursuit of Covid-19 vaccines, including Moderna Inc. and Novavax Inc., who have sold large chunks of stock after promising news about their own coronavirus shots, as well as at other times.
Pfizer Limited shares touched its 52-week low of Rs 3588.15 on March 3, 2020, before India went into lockdown due to the pandemic.
The US company and Germany's BioNTech said that they expected further regulatory decisions from other countries "in the coming days and weeks".
Pfizer shares closed up 2.44%% at Rs 5229.8, valuing the company at Rs 23,925.6 crore.
Both Pfizer-BioNTech and US biotech firm Moderna have reported preliminary findings of more than 90% effectiveness - an unexpectedly high rate - in trials of their vaccines, which are both based on new messenger RNA (mRNA) technology.
Pfizer shares were in the green even though BSE Sensex was down 37 points at 44,618 levels on Wednesday.