Hantavirus cases spark surge in pharma, biotech stocks — here’s why
PICTURES of a hantavirus testing concept featuring cotton swabs and laboratory tubes containing HANTAVIRUS labels are photographed in front of a public domain hantavirus-related microscopic image released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on May 8, 2026 in Paris, France.
Joao Luiz Bulcao | Afp | Getty Images
Some pharmaceutical stocks rose Monday as investors weighed which company might be best prepared to combat the hantavirus outbreak.
World Health Organization It marked the start of an outbreak of hantavirus, a deadly and viral respiratory disease spread by rodents, on May 2, after some passengers caught the virus on the Dutch-flagged expedition ship MV Hondius sailing in the Atlantic.
According to the World Health Organization and other health authorities, the public health risk of the virus is low. Transmission to humans is rare. Here’s how the pandemic has led to a rally in certain pharmaceutical and biotech stocks.
Which pharmaceutical and biotech stocks are rising?
biotechnology company ModernaThe company, which is developing one of the major Covid-19 vaccines, rose more than 3 percent after it was announced that it was conducting preclinical research on the virus. Shares rose immediately after the opening bell.
“Moderna conducted preclinical studies on Hantaviruses in collaboration with the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), reflecting the ongoing regional impact of these pathogens,” he said in a statement shared with CNBC.
“These efforts are in the early stages and ongoing and reflect Moderna’s broader responsibility to develop countermeasures against emerging infectious diseases.”
Evercore ISI said last week that the Hantavirus case was unlikely to be a revenue opportunity for Moderna.
Moderna stock is year-to-date compared to some other drug stocks.
“As a name with intense retail trade, [Moderna] “Given current headlines, we do not see a meaningful revenue opportunity,” Evercore analysts said in a May 7 note.
“Hantavirus is a structurally small market with low incidence, and we see potential big moves based on sentiment, not fundamentals. At best, Moderna’s mRNA platform strengthens its agility, something that is already well understood post-COVID.” they added.
Meanwhile, vaccine development company Inovio Pharmaceuticals Biotechnology companies increased by 1% Novavax And Emergency BioSolutions each fell less than 1%. All three stocks posted gains in premarket trading.
US President Donald Trump Addressing the situation on Friday, officials said that the outbreak on the cruise ship was under control and that a report on the virus would come soon.
“We hope this situation is largely under control,” Trump told reporters Thursday. “It was a ship, and I think we’ll be doing a full report on it tomorrow. We’ve got a lot of people. … No problem.”
What is hantavirus and how serious is the outbreak?
The Hantavirus strain in this case is Andes virus, which is the only strain that can cause transmission between humans, according to the World Health Organization.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said friday He said eight cases have been reported so far, including three deaths, and five of the cases have been confirmed to be hantavirus. Ghebreyesus said the WHO assessed the “public health risk as low.”
MV Hondius is no longer Berthed in Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands After waiting in the open for a few days to be cleaned.
Passengers and crew began disembarking under strict health protocols as authorities coordinated testing, isolation and repatriation efforts across multiple countries as they continued to monitor the spread of the virus.
