An illustration of a hantavirus testing concept with a cotton swab and a laboratory tube containing a hantavirus label, taken in front of public domain hantavirus-related microscopic images published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Paris, France, on May 8, 2026.
Joan Luis Burcao | AFP | Getty Images
The hantavirus outbreak caused the stock prices of companies working on vaccine development to soar temporarily, but they were unable to sustain the initial rise.
The World Health Organization on May 2 reported an outbreak of hantavirus, a deadly viral respiratory disease spread by rodents, after some passengers on the Dutch-flagged expedition cruise ship MV Hondius contracted the virus while sailing in the Atlantic Ocean.
The WHO and other health authorities say the virus poses a low public health risk, noting that human infections are rare.
Which pharma and biotech stocks are rising?
biotech companies modernaShares rose less than 1% after the company that developed one of the leading coronavirus vaccines said it was conducting preclinical studies of the virus. Shares had soared to $59.48 early in the session.
“Reflecting the ongoing regional impact of these pathogens, Moderna conducted preclinical research on hantaviruses in collaboration with the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID),” it said in a statement shared with CNBC.
“These efforts are early and ongoing and reflect Moderna’s broader responsibility to develop responses to emerging infectious diseases.”
Evercore ISI said last week that the Hantavirus incident is unlikely to create a revenue opportunity for Moderna.
We compared Moderna’s year-to-date stock price to several other drug stocks.
“As a retailer-heavy company,[Moderna]tends to trade with an emphasis on outbreak headlines far beyond the underlying commercial implications,” Evercore analysts said in a May 7 note. “We do not believe there is a meaningful revenue opportunity with respect to the current headlines.”
“Hantavirus is a structurally small market with low incidence, and we see any potential large-scale moves as sentiment-driven rather than fundamental. At best, it reinforces the agility of Moderna’s mRNA platform, which is already well-understood post-COVID,” they added.
On the other hand, vaccine development companies Inobio Pharmaceutical Biotech companies fell 1%. Novavax and Emergent biosolution They fell 5% and 1%, respectively. All three stocks were up in early trading.
US President Donald Trump has said the cruise ship outbreak is under control and a report on the virus will be released soon.
“I hope things are very much under control,” President Trump told reporters Thursday. “It was a ship. I think I’ll have a full report on it tomorrow. There’s a lot of people. . . . It’ll be okay.”
What is hantavirus and how serious is the outbreak?
According to the WHO, the strain of hantavirus in this case is Andes virus, the only species that can cause infection between humans.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday that so far eight cases have been reported and three deaths, five of which have been confirmed to be hantavirus. Ghebreyesus said the WHO assesses the public health risk as “low.”
The MV Hondius is currently in port in Tenerife, Spain’s Canary Islands, after spending several days offshore awaiting permission.
Passengers and crew have begun disembarking the ship under strict health protocols, and authorities are coordinating testing, isolation and repatriation efforts in multiple countries as they continue to monitor the spread of the virus.
