Five companies have now been picked by the Trump administration as the most likely candidates to produce a coronavirus vaccine, The New York Times reports.This comes as part of Operation Warp Speed (OWS), the administration’s national program to accelerate the development, manufacturing, and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics.Among its other objectives, Operation Warp Speed aims to have substantial quantities of a safe and effective vaccine available for Americans by January 2021.The five companies selected are as follows:Moderna’s (MRNA) mRNA1273 which is currently undergoing Phase 2 trials;A joint collaboration between AstraZeneca (AZN) and Oxford University on AZD1222 which is now in clinical trials at multiple UK sites;Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) which plans to start a Phase 1 clinical trial in September with an ultimate goal of supplying more than one billion doses of its coronavirus vaccine globally;Merck (MRK) which is trying to develop a vaccine using similar technology to its successful Ebola vaccine through a partnership with non-profit research organization IAVI, and;Pfizer (PFE) is working with German drugmaker BioNTech (BNTX) on clinical trials of BNT162, with plans to have a vaccine ready by the end of October, and produce “hundreds of millions” of doses in 2021.GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi did not make the cut.On May 15 Operation Warp Speed revealed plans to select the most promising countermeasure candidates and provide coordinated government support to support their development.Large-scale randomized trials for the demonstration of safety and efficacy will proceed for three to five of the candidates, with as many as 150,000 people vaccinated if all five vaccine candidates reach the Phase 3 stage.Indeed, Congress has directed almost $10 billion to this effort through supplemental funding, including the CARES Act, with $3 billion directed for NIH research.“Vaccines are coming along really well,” President Trump told the Twittersphere on Tuesday. “Moving faster than anticipated. Good news ahead.”Shares in Moderna have exploded over 200% year-to-date, and optimism continues to rise after the company recently announced that it has started dosing the first patients in a Phase 2 study with its experimental mRNA-1273 vaccine candidate.The Phase 2 study, being conducted by Moderna under its own Investigational New Drug (IND) application, seeks to evaluate the safety, reactogenicity and immunogenicity of two vaccinations of mRNA-1273 given 28 days apart. The biotech company plans to enroll 600 healthy participants across two cohorts of adults ages 18-55 years and older adults ages 55 years and above.Earlier this month, Moderna reported “positive” interim clinical data saying that the Phase 1 study of its mRNA-1273 vaccine candidate produced antibodies that would be able to “neutralize” the virus in patients. The company reiterated plans to start the Phase 3 trial in July, subject to the finalization of the clinical trial protocol.Five-star analyst Cory Kasimov at J.P. Morgan recently reiterated a Buy rating on the stock, saying “How to appropriately capture this in MRNA’s valuation is a tough question to answer (especially given all the unknowns around COVID-19 and the ultimate opportunity) and one that we suspect will be a key investor debate going forward.”Overall, Wall Street analysts are bullish on Moderna stock with 10 Buy and 2 Hold ratings giving it a Strong Buy consensus. Despite the recent rally, the $89.33 average price target still indicates 50% upside potential from current levels. (See Moderna stock analysis on TipRanks).Related News: Gilead Sinks 3% On New Remdesivir Data; Analysts Stay Sidelined Pfizer Loses 6% On Disappointing Ibrance Breast Cancer Outcome Novavax Seeks To Make 1 Billion Covid-19 Vaccine Doses More recent articles from Smarter Analyst: * Costco Reports May Sales Jump; Top Analyst Says Stock ‘Best Positioned’ For Current Crisis * Amazon Leases 12 Boeing Cargo Aircraft To Meet Online Orders Surge * Can Tesla Provide the Million Mile EV Battery? Top Analyst Weighs In * Coty Spikes 15% Amid Talks With Kim Kardashian West For A Cosmetics Tie-Up

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(Bloomberg) — Oil retreated from a three-month high as OPEC+ unity was threatened by a long-running feud over complying with production cutbacks, while U.S. data cast doubt on the strength of the demand recovery.Futures in New York fell around 2% to below $37 a barrel after closing at the highest since March 6. Saudi Arabia and Russia have reached a preliminary deal to extend output curbs for an extra month, but it’s conditional on other members making deeper cuts in the months ahead to make up for past non-compliance, people familiar with the matter said. The two leading producers have lost their patience with the errant behavior of the next-biggest, Iraq.Meanwhile in the U.S., diesel demand fell to a 21-year low last week and gasoline stockpiles swelled, according to Energy Information Administration data. The figures suggest that fuel consumption in the world’s largest oil consumer isn’t recovering as quickly as previously anticipated.While oil prices have rebounded rapidly since mid-April, the rally is faltering amid several headwinds. The White House is suspending passenger flights from Chinese airlines as relations between the world’s two biggest economies continue to worsen, while civil unrest across the U.S. is complicating the economic recovery from the virus and risking a second wave of infections.West Texas Intermediate for July delivery dropped 1.7% to $36.65 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange as of 7:36 a.m. in London after rising 1.3% on Wednesday. Brent for August settlement declined 1% to $39.39 on the ICE Futures Europe exchange after trading above $40 for the first time in almost three months in the previous session.“The OPEC+ decision will be key for price direction over the next week, with a potential extension providing some limited upside,” said Warren Patterson, head of commodities strategy at ING Bank NV. However, there’s a disconnect between the rise in oil prices and weak refining margins, suggesting the rally has gotten a bit ahead of itself at least in the near term, he said.Riyadh and Moscow are aligned on continuing cuts at the current level for an extra month beyond July 1. But if they don’t receive assurances from Iraq and the other laggards at their next meeting — scheduled for June 9-10 — the group’s daily supply curbs will ease to 7.7 million barrels for the rest of 2020.The OPEC+ disagreements are coming to a head as higher prices have already spurred some U.S. producers to bring wells back online. EOG Resources Inc., America’s largest shale-focused producer, and Permian driller Parsley Energy Inc. are preparing to ramp up output just weeks after turning off the taps.Diesel supplied in the U.S. tumbled 17% to 2.72 million barrels a day last week, according to the EIA, while gasoline inventories rose by a higher-than forecast 2.8 million barrels. Overall crude stockpiles fell by 2.1 million barrels and inventories at the storage hub at Cushing declined for a fourth week.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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