51ÊÓƵ

Heavy hearts soared Monday with news that Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate — the frontrunner in the American market — seemed to be generating an immune response in Phase 1 trial subjects. The company’s stock valuation also surged, hitting $29 billion, an astonishing feat for a company that currently sells zero products. But was there good reason for so much enthusiasm? Several vaccine experts asked by STAT concluded that, based on the information made available by the Cambridge, Mass.-based company, there’s really no way to know how impressive — or not — the vaccine may be. (Branswell, 5/19)

Two top Food and Drug Administration officials, suddenly at the center of the White House’s effort to speed approval for Covid-19 vaccines, will recuse themselves from the agency’s considerations about whether to approve those products, according to an email obtained by STAT. The move is designed to lessen conflict-of-interest concerns, since the FDA’s mission is to skeptically review safety and efficacy evidence for drugs, not push for their approval. (Florko, 5/19)

As pharmaceutical giants edge closer to a potential vaccine for the new coronavirus, governments demanding access to any supplies are running up against a hard reality: the bill. The tension was cast into relief last Thursday when Sanofi SA chairman Serge Weinberg took a call from French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, according to a person familiar with the matter. Mr. Philippe wanted to know why the chief executive of the company—one of France’s corporate crown jewels—had told an interviewer the U.S. would be first in line for its potential coronavirus vaccine. (Roland, Bisserbe and Kostov, 5/19)