Astrazeneca Pharma share rises 11% after WHO gives emergency use nod to COVID-19 vaccine

Astrazeneca Pharma India share rose over 11% in trade today after World Health Organisation (WHO) gave emergency use approval (EUA) to two versions of AstraZeneca-Oxford's COVID-19 vaccine, allowing these shots to be rolled out globally through COVAX.

The mid cap share has gained after 2 days of consecutive fall.

The stock opened with a gain of 3.26% at Rs 3,700 today. On NSE, the share rose 11.50% to Rs 4,050 against previous close of Rs 3,630.75. On BSE,  the pharma stock rose up to 9.73% to Rs 3,985 in early trade.

The share trades higher than 5 day and 20 day moving averages but lower than 50 day, 100 day and 200 day moving averages. The stock has gained 34.06% in one year and lost 16.87% since the beginning of this year.

Market cap of the firm rose to Rs 9,615 crore. The vaccines are being produced by AstraZeneca-SKBio (Republic of Korea) and the Serum Institute of India. The apex health organisation has assessed the quality, safety and efficacy data, risk management plans and programmatic suitability, such as cold chain requirements of these two AstraZeneca- Oxford vaccines. The process took under four weeks.

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The vaccine was reviewed on February 8 by WHO's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunisation (SAGE), which makes recommendations for vaccines' use in populations (i.e. recommended age groups, intervals between shots, advice for specific groups such as pregnant and lactating women). The SAGE recommended the vaccine for all age groups 18 and above.  

The AstraZeneca-Oxford product is a viral vectored vaccine called ChAdOx1-S [recombinant]. It is being produced at several manufacturing sites, as well as in the Republic of Korea and India. ChAdOx1-S has been found to have 63.09 per cent efficacy and is suitable for low and middle income countries due to easy storage requirements.

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