Vaxcyte(PCVX.US) jumps 33% premarket as its pneumococcal conjugate vaccine shows similar safety to Pfizer's (PFE.US) competitor

Zhitong Finance learned that Vaxcyte(PCVX.US) announced on Tuesday that its experimental pneumococcal polysaccharide conjugate vaccine(PCV)VAX-31 showed similar safety to its competitor Pfizer's (PFE.US) Prevnar20 in a Phase 1/2 trial, and its stock rose about 33% before the market opened, while Pfizer's stock fell 2% before the market opened.

Based on the data from the study, the company said that all doses of VAX-31 showed good tolerance during the six-month assessment period, similar to Prevnar20. The study recruited more than 1,000 healthy adults aged 50 and above.

As for immunogenicity, the candidate vaccine showed OPA immune response against 31 serotypes of bacteria. However, the average OPA immune response of 18 serotypes was higher in VAX-31 high dose than Prevnar20.

Based on these results, Vaxcyte plans to advance its most widely used PCV candidate VAX-31 to a Phase 3 trial in adults. The key Phase 3 study is expected to start in mid-2025 and plans to generate revenue data in 2025. The company expects to start the remaining Phase 3 trials in 2025 and 2026 for the candidate drug's marketing application.