Damien Conover, CFA

Damien Conover, CFA, is director of equity research, North America, for Morningstar.

More From Damien Conover

The FDA provided emergency use authorization, or EUA, for Pfizer and partner BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine BNT162b2 on Dec. 11. However, we are not changing our fair value for either Pfizer or BioNTech as the EUA was largely expected.

With the vaccine’s efficacy over 90% and no major safety issues observed, we believe Pfizer and BioNTech's vaccine is set up for emergency use in late 2020, followed by full approval in 2021 pending supportive final data.

We continue to view Merck as undervalued, with the market not fully appreciating the firm’s strong immuno-oncology platform.

We don’t expect these actions by President Trump to significantly affect our fair value estimates or moat ratings due to limited details, challenging implementation, and only minor impacts.

More About Damien Conover

Damien Conover, CFA, is director of equity research, North America, for Morningstar*.

Before joining Morningstar in 2007, Conover was an equity research analyst covering the healthcare sector for Raymond James, Bank of Montreal, and Tucker Anthony.

Conover holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in finance from the University of Wisconsin and was a member of its Applied Security Analysis Program. He also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

* Morningstar Research Services LLC (“Morningstar”) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Morningstar, Inc

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