Vaccine developers’ stocks dip after Prasad memo becomes public

Shares of vaccine developers tumbled Monday in the first trading session since FDA’s Vinay Prasad circulated an internal memo tying COVID-19 vaccines to children’s deaths without evidence supporting the link.

Although the memo from Prasad, the director of FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, did not name any companies or specific COVID-19 vaccines, the market effect extended beyond those whose products have been approved or authorized to prevent the disease. In addition to attributing the deaths of 10 children to the COVID vaccine, Prasad told CBER staff that FDA will no longer allow immunogenicity surrogate markers to support vaccine approval...