Pre-vaccine blue-chip stocks "riding" the Hantavirus hype surge, revealing multiple early-stage studies underway

Local time on Friday, biotech stock Moderna, known for developing the new coronavirus mRNA vaccine, surged 11.97%. On the news front, the company revealed it is researching a vaccine to prevent hantavirus.

Although public health experts emphasize that the transmission method of hantavirus is quite different from COVID-19 and the threat to the general public remains low, this news still drove the company’s stock price higher, approaching the highs since the end of 2024.

(Source: TradingView)

However, the company’s stock price is still 90% below the peak during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a statement sent to the media, Moderna said that the company had previously conducted early-stage vaccine research targeting hantavirus in collaboration with the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. Additionally, the company is working with the Vaccine Innovation Center at Korea University College of Medicine to develop a potential immunization approach. The related research was already underway before the recent outbreak event on the “Honduras” cruise ship.

Earlier that day, Moderna also disclosed that the results of its Phase III flu mRNA vaccine study exceeded expectations.

The company stated: “These projects are still in early development stages and are ongoing. This also reflects Moderna’s broader responsibility in developing protective measures against emerging infectious diseases.”

Whether the market’s speculative activity around hantavirus can continue largely depends on how quickly the outbreak event on the “Honduras” cruise ship can be contained.

The “Honduras” cruise ship will arrive in Tenerife, Spain, this Sunday, at which point non-Spanish residents on board will be sent back to their respective countries. According to statistics, affected countries include Argentina, Cape Verde, the Netherlands, the UK, the US, Denmark, Germany, the Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, and France.

It is reported that 14 Spanish residents on the ship will be taken to a hospital in Madrid for quarantine observation. The CDC will send a team to Spain to bring affected Americans back to the National Quarantine Center in Nebraska.

Countries are also tracking the 32 passengers who disembarked at the end of April, as well as those who had close contact with them.

Humans have known about hantavirus for half a century. This virus is usually transmitted by infected rats. The strain related to the cruise ship incident is the Andes strain, which is the only known variant capable of human-to-human transmission, typically requiring close, prolonged contact, with an incubation period usually ranging from 1 to 6 weeks.

Based on the historical spread of hantavirus over the past decades, medical experts are also skeptical about whether pharmaceutical companies are willing to invest in developing new vaccines. Currently, China and South Korea have inactivated hantavirus vaccines targeting hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS), but these are effective against Eurasian strains. There is still a lack of mature, market-ready vaccines for the strains prevalent in the Americas.

Professor Sabra Klein from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health told the media: “Funding agencies are unlikely to invest heavily because it’s unlikely to trigger the next epidemic or pandemic.”

Meanwhile, because such infections tend to occur sporadically and disproportionately affect poorer countries, pharmaceutical companies lack the motivation to invest.

Matt Sleid, founder of the mRNA vaccine startup EnsiliTech, said that even if the virus is reignited by the cruise ship incident, vaccine development must have a strong commercial logic. The company is developing an mRNA vaccine targeting the hantavirus strain prevalent in East Asia, but it will still take several years to reach clinical trials.

Sleid stated: “Unfortunately, hantavirus tends to circulate in regions without sufficient funding, so it has always lacked attention.”

Ofer Levy, director of the Precision Vaccines Program at Boston Children’s Hospital, also mentioned that Americans’ history of contact with hantavirus dates back to World War II, when U.S. troops were deployed to Central Europe. The U.S. military had previously expressed interest in investing in hantavirus vaccine development. However, due to the relatively rare outbreaks of this virus globally, related R&D funding has always been an issue.

（Source: Cailian Press）