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Today's big stories

Biotech Moderna announced an effective coronavirus vaccine of its own
… but that might not actually be great news for the company’s investors – Read Now
15 Asia-Pacific countries signed one of the biggest trade deals in history

1.

Bragging Rights

What’s Going On Here?

Moderna doesn’t want to get into a drug-measuring contest or anything, but the biotech company did announce on Monday that its vaccine is even more effective than Pfizer’s.

What Does This Mean?

This makes Moderna the second US company to announce late-stage trial data that beat expectations. Next stop: approval from US and European regulators, which Moderna’s said it’ll officially request in the next few weeks. From there, the biotech has set its sights high: it’s expecting to ship 20 million doses of the dual-dose vaccine to the US by the end of this year, and between 500 million and a billion doses globally by the end of 2021.

Why Should I Care?

The bigger picture: The more, the merrier.
A major advantage of Moderna’s vaccine isn’t just its 94.5% effectiveness to Pfizer’s 90%: it’s that it lasts for 30 days at refrigerator temperatures, compared to Pfizer’s five (tweet this). That could make distribution of the drug simpler and cheaper, since it won’t need the ultra-cold storage that Pfizer’s will. Still, with demand for a vaccine so much higher than any one drugmaker can meet in the near term, they’ll both have their time to shine. That’s certainly true in China, where vaccinations are already underway, as well as in Russia, whose Sputnik-V coronavirus vaccine – which was licensed for domestic use in August – is reportedly 92% effective.

For markets: Little victories.
A vaccine is considered the single best way to get the global economic recovery back on track, but there’s already the odd bright spot if you look closely enough. Here’s one: Chinese industrial production and retail consumption data jumped by the most this year in October. That’s a good thing for European and American companies too: it means Chinese shoppers will be more than happy to keep buying their products.

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2. Analyst Take

Why Vaccines Are Bad News For Pharma Investors

What’s Going On Here?

If you read our story above (you did, right?), you’ll already know that Pfizer and BioNTech – and now, Moderna – have produced an effective coronavirus vaccine.

But here’s the thing: good news for the world might not be good news for pharma investors.

For one, vaccines aren’t very profitable at the best of times – and BioNTech has already said it’d price its own below market rates.

For another, the resources Big Pharma’s had to plow into coronavirus vaccines has come at the expense of other, more profitable products.

So that’s what we’re looking at today: why vaccines mightn’t bring investors the windfalls they might expect, and a smarter way to identify the best of the Big Pharma firms.

Get the full insight here

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3.

Kind Of A Big Deal

What’s Going On Here?

Leaders from 15 Asia-Pacific countries – whose apartments probably smell of rich mahogany – signed one of the biggest trade agreements in history on Monday.

What Does This Mean?

The “Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership” (RCEP) is a deal between China, Australia, Japan, South Korea, and plenty more besides, and it covers a third of the world’s population and economic output. And it would’ve been bigger still if India – concerned China would throw its weight around – hadn’t withdrawn from talks in 2019.

The RCEP will help products move more freely from member to member by cutting the tariffs they have to pay. And it looks like it could be well worth it: economists reckon that by 2030, the deal could add almost $200 billion a year to the global economy.

Why Should I Care?

Zooming out: Buzzkill.
Asian countries might be forming new alliances, but the US has been leaving them altogether: just look at its withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership – a major trade deal involving Canada, Mexico, and many RCEP members – back in 2017. That’s left the world’s biggest economy out of two agreements with Asia’s heavy-hitters, and could see its influence over the world’s fastest-growing region continue to disappear. All that, while China reduces its dependence on overseas markets and technology…

The bigger picture: Tick tock...
It took almost a decade to negotiate the RCEP, which might come as some consolation to the UK: it’s been struggling to draft a post-Brexit trade deal with the European Union (EU) in a fraction of that time. The country’s only replicated about half the trade deals it had with third-party countries when it was part of the EU – and it still has to get the big one with the bloc itself across the line. But the clock is ticking: UK and EU officials need to sign it off by December 31st, when the new rules will come into effect.

Recommended: How failed trade deals impact you.

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💬 Quote of the day

“The highest courage is to dare to appear to be what one is.”

– John Lancaster Spalding (an American author, poet, and the first Bishop of Peoria, Illinois)

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🌎 Finimize Community

☀️ It’s Africa’s time to shine

It’s true: we talk about Europe, China, and the US a lot, but we haven’t touched on Africa much. Lucky for us, we have brilliant hosts who have stepped up and set things right: join them on Wednesday to find out how the African economy is handling the coronavirus crisis, and how it can adapt going forward.

🙋‍♀️ Women & Investing: 2pm UK Time, November 18th
📉 What’s Next For The African Economy: 4pm Ghana Time, Nov 18th
😊 The Art of Finding The Joy of Money with Julia Newbould: 5.30pm Perth Time, November 19th
🤖 The Rise of Blockchain: 7pm Dubai Time, November 25th
🚀 Next Gen Investor Summit: 12pm UK Time, December 1st

📚 What we're reading

Sweden isn’t having Amazon’s sh*t (Wired)
Is delivery-only the future of restaurants? (Eater)
How a new element gets the seal of approval (Science News)

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Finimize - 🎉 Keep those vaccines coming

Today's big stories

Bragging Rights

What’s Going On Here?

What Does This Mean?

Why Should I Care?

Why Vaccines Are Bad News For Pharma Investors

⏰ Spend your time more wisely

Kind Of A Big Deal

What’s Going On Here?

What Does This Mean?

Why Should I Care?

☀️ It’s Africa’s time to shine

Older messages

😧 Disney's crushing Netflix

🤫 Goldman writes off 2020

😢 Vaccines won't save oil

😬 Europe takes down Amazon

🇺🇸 America had a busy week

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