By Mariam Sunny
(Reuters) -Moderna’s shares fell 2.3% on Friday on concerns about whether a new CDC advisory panel would back the use of the company’s respiratory syncytial virus vaccine in a broader age group.
The mRNA-based RSV shot, mRESVIA, secured U.S. approval on Thursday for use in at-risk adults aged 18 to 59 years, but needs the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendation before it is made available for the age group. It is already approved for use in adults aged 60 or older.
However, that support is now in doubt after Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. replaced all 17 members of a key panel this week, with some of the new appointees having openly expressed anti-vaccine views.
“I do think there is a general fear that mRNA technology may not be viewed in a favorable light by the new ACIP,” Morningstar analyst Karen Andersen said.
The panel, known as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), advises the CDC on who should get the shots after they are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The CDC currently recommends a single dose of the shot for adults aged 75 and older, as well as for at-risk adults aged 60 to 74.
“The biggest moving factor in this market is whether or not sometime in the future can we actually get that recommendation to revaccinate,” William Blair analyst Myles Minter said.
U.S.-listed shares of GSK, which markets rival RSV shot Arexvy, fell 2.5% to $41.44, while those of Pfizer, which sells RSV shot Abrysvo, fell marginally.
Morningstar’s Anderson projects the total RSV vaccine market to be worth about $3.9 billion by 2030 globally, with Moderna gaining about 19% market share by then.
(Reporting by Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Anil D’Silva)
