Health-care companies fell slightly as investors rotated into more cyclical areas of the market.
The U.S. government has agreed to pay AstraZeneca up to $1.2 billion to secure the supply of a potential coronavirus vaccine that could be ready as early as October, pledging to fund a 30,000-person vaccine trial in the U.S. starting in the summer.
Abbott Labs received a contract to supply millions of its laboratory-based IgG antibody tests to National Health Service laboratories in the U.K.
A survey of health-care executives suggested the companies are sanguine about the public-health outlook for the second half of the year and believe that telemedicine will be a growing part of their industry after the pandemic. "Health-care companies are optimistic about the pace of recovery and aren't anticipating a second Covid surge in their outlooks," said analysts at brokerage Morgan Stanley, in a note to clients.
There's also "an emerging consensus that given biopharma companies' role in developing Covid treatments and a vaccine, focus on drug pricing will be sidelined for now," said the Morgan Stanley analysts.
Write to Rob Curran at rob.curran@dowjones.com
