The news Monday regarding AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN)'s trial of coronavirus vaccine AZD1222 seemed to be the type of information that would push a stock's price up, not down.
Interim results from the phase 1/2 trial of the company's vaccine, which was developed in partnership with Oxford University, suggested that it drove antibody and T-cell immune responses against COVID-19 in each of the study's 1,077 participants.
While the trial is only into its third month, that's a big deal. No COVID-19 vaccine has yet been approved. An article in The Lancet cited the World Health Organization as saying that there are more than 137 coronavirus vaccine candidates in clinical trials and 23 more in the preclinical stage. The AZD1222 study is one of only two such candidates now entering the third stage of trials.