Shares of vaccine makers fell on Thursday as President-elect Donald Trump named Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a distinguished vaccine skeptic, to move the Department of Health and Human Services.
Shares fell in the ultimate hour of trading Reports Trump's expected election got here. ModernShares closed down greater than 5% on Thursday Novavax fell by greater than 7% and PfizerShares closed down greater than 2%.
Shares of BioNTechthe German drugmaker, which was co-developing a Covid vaccine with Pfizer, closed greater than 6% lower. British drug manufacturer GSKwhich makes flu shots and several other other vaccines, closed about 2% lower.
Shares of those firms fell further in prolonged trading as Trump confirmed his election in a post on his Truth Social platform.
Health policy experts say a second Trump term could allow Kennedy to sharpen his anti-vaccine rhetoric, which could deter more Americans from receiving Covid shots and routine vaccinations which have saved hundreds of thousands of lives and prevented debilitating diseases for a long time.
Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax are still recovering from falling Covid vaccination rates within the US which have dented their profits over the past two years.
Kennedy's track record as a vaccine skeptic is extensive. He has a protracted history of constructing misleading and false statements in regards to the safety of vaccines, corresponding to claiming that they’re linked to autism, despite quite a few decades-long studies refuting this link.
Kennedy is the founding father of the nonprofit Children's Health Defense, the country's most well-funded anti-vaccine organization.
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