TheChek News Flow

A volunteer in a key coronavirus vaccine trial has revealed that it left him the sickest he has ever been in his life — but still “cautiously optimistic” about the drug’s potential.

Ian Haydon, 29, identified himself in a series of interviews as one of four volunteers who had bad reactions during the trials that Moderna hailed for “positive” early findings of antibody responses.

The Seattle-based communications manager told STAT News that he started getting chills within hours of getting home from his second dose — waking in the early hours with a 103.2-degree fever.

Already nauseous and with aching muscles, his girlfriend called a 24-hour hotline from those leading the study, following their advice to go to urgent care, getting there at 5 a.m., he told STAT.

Haydon said he turned down the offer to be taken to a local hospital, and instead went home to rest with Tylenol.

After sleeping a few hours, he still had a temperature of 101.5 — feeling so nauseous he threw up in the bathroom, he said.

He then fainted on his way back to the bedroom — with his girlfriend luckily on hand to stop his head from slamming into the floor, he said.

Calling doctors in the study for a second time, he ultimately decided to stay home and rest, with the fever eventually dropping that night, he said.

Haydon initially hid the full drama of his reaction, having only told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that he had a “rough go of things for 24 hours.”

He was wary about revealing the horror he suffered because he was wary about “triggering anti-vax” people, he admitted in a series of tweets.

“I understand that sharing the story, it’s going to be frightening to some people,” he told STAT News.

“I hope that it doesn’t fuel any sort of general antagonism towards vaccines in general or towards even this vaccine.”

He stressed that he had received the highest dose from the trials — one 10 times stronger than others — one he has been told “will no longer be tested.”

“There’s no failure here — this is a big reason why we do clinical trials,” he insisted on Twitter. “Even safe meds can’t be taken at 10x doses.”

He also insisted as sick as he was it was never “life-threatening,” saying, “They’re over, and I’m back to marathon training.”

Even after his sickness, he said he remains “cautiously optimistic” about a vaccine breakthrough from the trial.

“Vaccines are the single most important medicines we have. It’s important to test them carefully — which is what’s happening here,” he wrote. “What I went through pales in comparison to being hospitalized with COVID-19. Or to the pain of losing a loved one to the pandemic,” he said.

Gam sw +11%

LPK GY -8.37%

BBN SW +1.73%

Italian banks’ merger spat is resembling a scenario for an opera buffa

Intesa Sanpaolo’s spat with rival UBI Banca resembles a scenario for an opera buffa. Crazy plot twists are layering on top of one another, like voices in one of Rossini’s turbocharged quintets. Hostile offers are not supposed to work in banking. Italy’s largest lender launched one anyway. Only bidders are meant to invoke material adverse change clauses. That has not stopped target UBI Banca from attempting it.

Rivalries run deep in European banking. Consolidation is constantly discussed but rarely accomplished.

Intesa made its audacious all-share approach as the pandemic hit markets in February. It valued UBI at €4.9bn. At today’s prices the target would be worth around €3bn. Intesa stock has fallen two-fifths, in line with the Stoxx 600 banks index, UBI by less than this.

The impact of coronavirus on Italy certainly looks like an adverse change. But even acquirers have had limited success in using MAC clauses to void bids. UBI’s mooted legal challenge reflects frustration. The bank, with assets of €126bn compared with €848bn for Intesa, cannot currently mount a public defence under Italian bid rules. A court ruling that the offer was invalid would change that.

Local opposition is a more intractable problem for Intesa, though. This is embodied by CAR, a grouping of shareholders, many from UBI’s Lombardy pridelands. They hold some 18 per cent of UBI and the borrowers among them must fear tougher loan terms. Intesa needs the support of two-thirds of the shareholder base to integrate UBI and make cost cuts worth billions. It can take arm’s length control with just over half the shares.

That would take nerve and a higher offer. Intesa boss Carlo Messina is capable of both.

History is not on his side, however. In Europe, banks typically merge because one of them is going bust. Only financial stress trumps political and antitrust objections. The complexity of a comic opera distils to a simple message: true love conquers all. In European banking, multi-faceted bid stand-offs have a simple takeaway too: don’t rock the boat.