Japan’s Plan to Recommend Drug for Coronavirus Sees FujiFilm Shares Soar

Gareth Allan, Bloomberg News

A pedestrian walks past a Fujifilm Holdings Corp. logo displayed outside one of the company's offices in Tokyo, Japan, on Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2018. Fujifilm Holdings is gaining control of Xerox Corp. in a deal that would create an $18 billion company and see the iconic American corporate giant launching into new lines of business to seek global growth. Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Fujifilm Holdings Corp. rose as much as 8.8% following Japanese Health Minister Katsunobu Kato’s comments over the weekend on the country’s plans to recommend its Avigan drug to treat coronavirus.

That compared to Japan’s benchmark Topix index, which slumped as much as 4.2%, the most since December 2018, on escalating concern over the global coronavirus outbreak. Japan markets were closed on Monday for a public holiday.

Anti-influenza drug Avigan has previously been used to treat Ebola, according to Fujifilm’s website, and Kato said test dosages have shown effects in mild and asymptomatic coronavirus cases.

Separately, Jefferies analyst Masahiro Nakanomyo raised the recommendation on Fujifilm to buy from hold in light of its “relatively attractive” position among leading precision stocks.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gareth Allan in Tokyo at gallan11@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Yusuke Miyazawa at ymiyazawa3@bloomberg.net, Philip Lagerkranser