Novavax price target lowered to $25 from $31 at Jefferies

Jefferies lowered the firm’s price target on Novavax to $25 from $31 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares after the company announced that the FDA has placed a clinical hold on the Investigational New Drug, or IND, application for its COVID-19-Influenza Combination, or CIC, and stand-alone influenza vaccine candidates. The clinical hold on the CIC candidate due to a serious adverse event, or SAE, seen in Phase 2 study was “a surprise given quite clean safety history,” says the analyst, who believes the hold could be resolved into Phase 3 with significant upside if a trial is eventually successful, but also sees uncertainty on the timeline and increased risk.