Shares of health-care companies edged higher as investors weighed prospects for a coronavirus vaccine.
BioNTech's U.S.-listed stock was up strongly after the company and partner Pfizer said they could be on track to seek regulatory review of their vaccine candidate to tackle Covid-19 as soon as October. On Thursday, the two companies reported additional results from an early-stage study of two experimental coronavirus vaccines, including the vaccine they are now testing in a larger study.
The U.S. reported fewer than 50,000 new coronavirus cases for the sixth day in a row Thursday, while the number of tests performed nationally dropped by more than 200,000 from a week ago.
The Trump administration is curtailing the Food and Drug Administration's ability to regulate laboratory tests -- including those for the new coronavirus -- that have been developed by hundreds of hospitals during the current pandemic.
In a statement, the Department of Health and Human Services, of which the FDA is a part, said it is taking the action as part of a Trump administration review of "duplicative actions and unnecessary policies" standing in the way of patient care. It didn't provide any examples.
Meanwhile, Bayer said it will pay $1.6 billion to settle claims that its birth control device Essure causes serious health complications, the latest in a string of settlements by the German company to resolve litigation it faces in the U.S.
Write to Amy Pessetto at amy.pessetto@dowjones.com
