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The race for the vaccine against the COVID-19 variants heats up; 3 actions to consider
Let’s talk about economics and COVID-19. Usually, this is a subject that will extend over last year’s economic disaster – the strong recession last winter, the huge increase in unemployment, the unprecedented increase in government debt. These are all important, even urgent, topics for discussion, but we are here to talk about vaccines and opportunities. Specifically, the vaccines that come from the biotechnology sector and the opportunities that they will bring. The rapid spread of COVID around the world has led to a big push by the Big Pharma industry to create an effective vaccine for the disease – a push that has had successful results. Two working vaccines were in production and reaching the general public before the end of 2020, and several other vaccine manufacturers had products under development or under approval in the first months of this year. It was an impressive demonstration of medical and technological know-how, placed for public benefit. The advent of vaccines, however, did not end the COVID pandemic. As the virus mutates, new variants begin to spread. Existing vaccines may be effective, but they may not be – and just as we receive a new flu vaccine each year, we may be faced with a situation in which we will need our regular ‘corona boosters’ to deal with the varying variants of the virus. And now we come to opportunities. A global vaccination program and new vaccines for new strains will represent a huge opening for businesses for biopharmaceutical companies involved in vaccine research and production. Using the TipRanks database, we extracted the details of three biopharmaceutical companies that stand to gain from expanding vaccination opportunities. Novavax, Inc. (NVAX) We will start in the suburbs of DC, where Novavax, based in Gaithersburg, Maryland, is a specialized biotechnology company focused on the development of vaccines for respiratory diseases. The company has been involved in previous work on SARS and MERS virus outbreaks, which has left it exclusively pre-adapted to work on the COVID-19 agent; the SARS and MERS viruses come from the same class of coronaviruses as COVID-19. Earlier this month, Novavax reported that its COVID-19 vaccine program had completed Phase 3 testing and demonstrated 96.4% effectiveness against the original strain of the virus. In addition, the Novavax vaccine is also in a Phase 2b trial against the South African variant of the virus. The company announced that the data from this trial show a 55.4% efficacy against the South African strain in HIV-negative patients. In both studies, the candidate vaccine achieved its statistical goals, including 100% protection against serious illness and hospitalization. Covering these shares for B. Riley Securities, 5-star analyst Mayank Mamtani looks at the company’s successful vaccine tests and sees them as the safest route for Novavax. “NVAX [is] ahead in the marathon to build the durable vaccine franchise, mainly through the design of multivalent booster candidate vaccines that could also include their final C-19 and influenza vaccine candidates, “noted Mamtani. The analyst added:” We continue a believe that the recent stock volatility presents another attractive opportunity to accumulate NVAX shares, particularly in light of a highly discarded catalyst profile that constitutes several regulatory approvals worldwide, starting with the repeated guidance of the UK MHRA order at the start of 2Q and the US FDA order in 2Q To this end, Mamtani classifies NVAX’s shares as a Buy, and its $ 397 target price implies a 74% upside potential for next year. (To view Mamtani’s track record, click here) In general, Wall Street analysts agree that NVAX is a solid prospect for investors; all 5 recent reviews here are for Buy, making the purchase consensus rating strong unanimous. The shares are trading at $ 201.50, and the average target price of $ 307.40 suggests ~ 35% up in one year. (See NVAX stock analysis at TipRanks) VBI Vaccines (VBIV) The next COVID warrior we are looking at is VBI Vaccines, another company that specializes in vaccine research and has accepted the challenge of the new coronavirus. The company has a history of working with chronic viral diseases that are difficult to treat, such as hepatitis B, but has also worked with other coronaviruses in the past. The big news here came out earlier this month, when the VBI and CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations) together announced a partnership to use the VBI vaccine candidates in research against the BVID.351 variant of the COVID-19 virus. This is the South African variant and is known to be more resistant to existing treatments. The development of a vaccine against this strain would be a big step forward against the COVID-19 pandemic. The partnership comes with $ 33 million in funding for VBI to adapt its enveloped virus-like particle vaccine (eVLP) technology against the South African variant. VBI’s eVLP technology has already been tested in preclinical studies against SARS-CoV-2 (the agent COVID-19) and has shown promise in inducing antibody titers against all three variants. In addition – and perhaps more thrillingly – the vaccine candidate also showed reactivity to HCoV-OC43, one of the seasonal coronaviruses already known. All of this attracted the attention of Raymond James analyst Steven Seedhouse. “The partnership with CEPI together with our macrotesis on COVID (which is that the virus is endemic and variant vaccines plus annual increases will be needed for years or even in perpetuity) collectively configure VBI for a significant increase in the profile of its vaccine programs COVID and, more broadly, its eVLP platform with a leading organization (CEPI) that also announced a $ 3.5 billion initiative today to reduce vaccine development schedules for future pandemics, ”said Seedhouse. Seedhouse places a $ 9 price target on this stock, showing confidence in a robust 159% rise for the next 12 months, and supporting its strong buy rating. (To view Seedhouse’s history, click here) Overall, we are looking at a stock with unanimous consensus from Wall Street analysts – 4 reviewers rated it, and they all put a seal of approval here, for a strong buy rating. VBIV’s shares are trading at $ 3.47, and the average price target of $ 6.75 suggests room for 94% growth this year. (See VBIV’s stock analysis at TipRanks) Moderna, Inc. (MRNA) Moderna made a splash in the news as it was one of the first two companies, along with Pfizer, to launch an effective COVID-19 vaccine on the market. The injection of Moderna – a two-dose vaccine based on mRNA technology – has been in the headlines since November, and the company’s stock has soared 480% in the past 12 months. Since the beginning of the vaccination programs, doubts and concerns have arisen related to the possibility of reinforcement shots. Will they be necessary, will they be safe, will they increase effectiveness? Moderna is working to answer these questions, and on March 10, the company announced that it has started dosing patients for its study of COVID boosters, in an amendment to the ongoing Phase 2 tests. Shares have risen more than 9% since that announcement. The reinforcement announcement by Moderna highlights an unusual feature of the COVID vaccine development program, which is visible in all sectors. Vaccines are advancing rapidly in the development process. In part, this is due to the ability of companies to take advantage of previous work in relation to SARS and MERS and, in part, to development programs like the one in Moderna by pushing vaccine candidates separately from the development and clinical testing phases simultaneously. Moderna’s reinforcement program will test the current vaccine and candidate vaccines against various strains of the new coronavirus. In a note to Brookline Capital, analyst Leah Rush Cann sees Moderna in the long term to increase sales and profits, due directly to the company’s success with the vaccine program COVID-19. The analyst writes that the “announcement of progress on a variant addressing COVID-19 vaccine supports our belief that mRNA-1273, and potentially vaccines or variant addressing boosters, could have sales of $ 51, 4 billion in 2030 and represent 51% of Moderna’s 2030 revenue … “The analyst added:” We continue to believe that the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine has increasingly superior attributes and reconfirms the flexibility and power of mRNA platforms ; allowing them to adapt to variations and mutations in infectious diseases very quickly. ”In line with his comments, Cann defined his outlook on the shares to be bought, and his target price of $ 205 suggests that growth will reach 32% in the next 12 months. (To see Cann’s background, click here) The vaccine debates have been reflected in the stock debates, and Moderna has a mix of analyzes by Wall Street analysts. Of the 13 archived reviews, 6 are for Buy, 5 for Keep and 2 for Sell, making the consensus rating a Moderate Purchase. The average target price is $ 168.08, which implies an 8% increase from the $ 155 trading price. (See MRNA stock analysis at TipRanks) To find good ideas for stock trading with compelling reviews, visit TipRanks’ Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that brings together all of TipRanks stock insights. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are exclusively those of the analysts presented. The content should be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.