By Christiana Sciaudone
Investing.com -- Shares of Pfizer jumped Wednesday after preliminary data for a Covid-19 vaccine showed promising results, pushing the market higher.
Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) rose 11% and its partner in the project, Biontech Se (NASDAQ:BNTX), rose 2.2%. TheDow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq 100 are both trading slightly higher Wednesday.
The vaccine program, called Project Lightspeed, aims to battle the Covid-19 virus. It includes four investigational vaccine candidates. The preliminary data demonstrated that one of them, BNT162b1, could be administered in a dose that was well tolerated and generated dose dependent immunogenicity, the company said.
The data has yet to be peer-reviewed.
“We are encouraged by the clinical data of BNT162b1, one of four mRNA constructs we are evaluating clinically, and for which we have positive, preliminary, top-line findings,” said Kathrin U. Jansen, Ph.D., the senior vice president and head of Pfizer's Vaccine Research & Development unit.
“These preliminary data are encouraging in that they provide an initial signal that BNT162b1 targeting the RBD SARS-CoV-2 is able to produce neutralizing antibody responses in humans at or above the levels observed in convalescent sera – and that it does so at relatively low dose levels,” said Ugur Sahin, M.D., the CEO and co-founder of BioNTech.