Mad Hedge Biotech & Healthcare Letter
September 1, 2020
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(RACE TO THE FINISH LINE)
(PFE), (BNTX), (MRNA), (AZN), (INO), (ZTS), (MYL)
Posts
One of the leading companies in the COVID-19 vaccine race is getting closer to the finish line.
Pfizer (PFE) shocked the scientific community when it announced that it would be ready to submit its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, BNT162b2, for FDA approval by October.
The company said that it is now more than 50% done with the recruitment for its Phase 3 clinical trial, which requires 30,000 volunteers.
Earlier this year, Pfizer and its vaccine partner BioNTech (BNTX) were included in the US government’s Operation Warp Speed project. Although the two rejected government funding, their candidate is still included in the fast-track priority list of the FDA.
To date, the US government already secured a contract with Pfizer and BioNTech for 600 million doses of their vaccine, with the initial payment of $1.95 billion for the first 100 million doses.
Other countries across the globe have also shown faith in the science of Pfizer.
The UK government completed a deal with Pfizer for 30 million doses, while Japan ordered 120 million doses.
Since it has been preparing its manufacturing facilities while also conducting its trials, Pfizer is confident that it can produce 1.3 billion doses of BNT162b2 in 2021.
Given this timeline, it is possible for the company to launch its COVID-19 vaccine to the market by the fourth quarter of 2020, with peak sales of the product reaching $1.7 billion in 2021.
Revenue for BNT162b2 is expected to slide to $850 million by 2023, with the vaccine raking in an average of $500 million to $600 million in annual sales by then.
However, there is no such thing as a perfect solution.
A potential competitive disadvantage of Pfizer’s vaccine candidate lies in its storage requirements, which entail a storage temperature of −94°F.
While tertiary hospitals and laboratories can meet this requirement, it would make it difficult for traditional offices or pharmacies to store the product.
This shortcoming might prompt other governments and private institutions to consider other vaccine candidates with simpler storage requirements.
Although the results have yet to be released, early data show that competitors like Moderna (MRNA), AstraZeneca (AZN), and Inovio Pharmaceutical (INO) might offer less complicated solutions.
Outside its widely publicized COVID-19 vaccine efforts, Pfizer has been working on additional spinoffs to boost and diversify its revenue stream.
Investors of the company would agree that Pfizer is the kingpin of spinoffs.
A prime example of this is its animal healthcare Zoetis (ZTS) spinoff, which was established in 2013. Since then, the investors have experienced impressive returns with over 289% yields.
Now, Pfizer is aiming to replicate this feat with the $195 billion merger of its own off-patent and generic drugs unit Upjohn with Pennsylvania-based company Mylan (MYL).
The two companies are slated to form a mega-company, called Viatris, where Pfizer stakeholders will also receive shares.
Looking at its portfolio and pipeline candidates, Viatris is projected to generate approximately $19 billion to $20 billion in annual revenue and record $4 billion in free cash flow.
On top of the Viatris spinoff, Pfizer is also working on the Nasdaq IPO of Cerevel Therapeutics.
This is an interesting move from Pfizer since Cerevel is a neuroscience company, which focuses on diseases of the central nervous system like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and epilepsy.
Pfizer owns 25% stake of the neuro company while Bain Capital holds 75%. The two established Cerevel in 2018.
Just last July, Cerevel announced its merger with Arya Sciences Acquisition Corp II.
When the merger is finalized, the new company will be called Cerevel Therapeutics Holdings and will be under the ticker symbol “CERE” in Nasdaq. The deal is expected to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2020.
Although it will be a relatively unknown and new company, Cerevel is expected to receive at least $445 million to use for its growth by the end of the year.
Needless to say, this is expected to be another “Zoetis-in-the-making” strategy from Pfizer.
For 2020, Pfizer raised its revenue guidance and estimates that it can generate somewhere between $48.6 billion and $50.6 billion while recording an earnings per share of roughly $2.85 and $2.95.
Looking at its balance sheet, Pfizer has proven itself capable of weathering one of the most debilitating downturns since The Great Depression.
In fact, the company amassed revenue of $12 billion and showed off a respectable 12% operational growth in its biopharma unit in the first three months of this year.
In its second quarter earnings report, when the COVID-19 pandemic was already well underway, Pfizer raked in $11.8 billion in revenue.
With all the publicity surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine efforts, it is understandable that investors are buying at artificially high prices. However, Pfizer remains incredibly undervalued.
Pfizer’s star power would inevitably surge if BNT162b2 proves to be safe and effective. Even without the vaccine though, the company’s diverse portfolio and impressive acquisition strategies already make it a great buy.
Plus, its healthy dividend, which yields approximately 3.9%, is no doubt the icing on the cake for this incredibly undervalued stock.
Mad Hedge Biotech & Healthcare Letter
August 11, 2020
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(THIS IS NO MONKEY BUSINESS)
(JNJ), (MRNA), (AZN), (PFE), (MRK), (INO)
Hot on the trail of Moderna (MRNA), AstraZeneca (AZN), and Pfizer (PFE), biotechnology and healthcare titan Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) recently shared its progress on its COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
Recent reports show that JNJ’s vaccine protected the monkeys enrolled in its experiment from SARS-CoV-2 infection.
The success of this experiment pushed the company’s coronavirus vaccine efforts to start with human trials in the US and in Europe by the third quarter of 2020.
Hopefully, the JNJ will be able to provide conclusive data on its human trials by September.
Since the results of the human trials will take months before getting released, the efficacy and potency of JNJ’s vaccine can only be determined based on the available monkey data.
According to these, the JNJ vaccine might be more similar with Merck’s (MRK) candidate. That is, it might only require one injection compared to at least two doses required by its fellow vaccine makers.
Basically, this vaccine candidate involves a common cold virus called adenovirus or Ad26.
This virus is then modified to carry the coronavirus spike protein genetic material. When injected into humans, the modified Ad26 then slips into the cells and triggers the body to produce the coronavirus proteins.
Since Ad26 has been modified to only mimic the SARS-CoV-2, it cannot replicate but can trigger the body into putting up defenses against the COVID-19 virus.
The Ad26 vaccine uses the same technology the company applied in its Ebola vaccine sent to the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2019.
JNJ’s vaccine candidate received approval from European regulators in July, making it the first-ever virus-assisted gene delivery treatment approved for any disease.
Since March, JNJ has been working on at least seven variations of the Ad26 vaccine. The idea is to come up with various candidates that will target different types of patients.
Aside from JNJ, COVID-19 vaccine leader Moderna has also released its monkey data for its vaccine trials.
In the Moderna experiment, the monkeys were given two shots of the vaccine in the course of four weeks. After a month, the same animals were infected with the SARS-CoV-2.
The results showed that no trace of the coronavirus was found in some of the vaccinated monkeys. While others still got infected, the virus gradually disappeared over time without any treatment.
Another COVID-19 frontrunner, Inovio Pharmaceuticals (INO), also released its monkey data.
The report covered four months from the day the monkeys were injected with Inovio’s vaccine candidate. According to the company’s findings, the infected animals only had traces of the coronavirus in their noses and lungs.
Other than JNJ, Moderna, and Inovio, both Pfizer and AstraZeneca also shared promising monkey data.
With a market capitalization of roughly $388 billion, JNJ is considered as one of the biggest biotechnology and healthcare companies in the world.
Apart from that, JNJ is one of the only two companies with an AAA credit rating. The other company is Microsoft (MSFT).
Needless to say, investing in an AAA-rated business with an impressive balance sheet makes buying JNJ stock an extremely low-risk and safe financial move.
JNJ has also been consistently regarded as a blue-chip dividend stock, offering a dependable 2.7% dividend.
While this may not be the highest yield you can get in the industry, JNJ has proven itself capable of handling the ups and downs of the market.
In fact, while most of the companies struggle to keep their heads above water, JNJ has surprisingly suffered minimal impact from this pandemic.
The company reported $20.7 billion in total revenue in the first quarter of 2020, showing off a 3.3% year-over-year climb in earnings and a 56.1% increase in earnings per share.
In JNJ’s second-quarter report, the company boosted its 2020 full-year guidance, with pharmaceutical revenue jumping to $18 billion and posting $3.6 billion in profits despite the 10.8% drop in sales.
One caveat when thinking about investing in JNJ is its widely reported talcum powder scandal. However, this issue poses no significant risk to the stock price since JNJ has already been penalized with billions of dollars.
More importantly, the company disclosed that it would no longer be selling baby powder. Clearly, the issue has been put to rest.
Regardless of how the COVID-19 vaccine race works out for JNJ, the company remains a solid investment. Its diverse product line alone makes it a financially resilient business. JNJ offers products from household items like Tylenol and Band-Aids to blockbuster drugs like severe psoriasis treatment Stelara.
Although JNJ is not particularly cheap at the moment, this stock is one of those investments that should be acquired at every pullback.
Since it is somewhat overvalued right now, my advice is to wait for a stock price correction soon and then pounce on the opportunity to own shares in this AAA-rated company.
Mad Hedge Biotech & Healthcare Letter
June 30, 2020
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(MODERNA’S BIG CORONA PLAY FOR A SMALL COMPANY)
(MRNA), (INO), (NVAX), (JNJ), (PFE), (BNTX), (LZAGF), (REGN), (AZN), (LLY), (MRK)
Credit where credit is due.
Tiny Moderna Inc (MRNA) has been at the forefront ever since this pandemic broke, with its vaccine program growing in leaps and bounds compared to competitors, like Novavax (NVAX), which has $3.02 billion in market capitalization, and Inovio (INO), which has $2.20 billion.
The latest report on Moderna’s progress pushes it much further ahead of its competitors.
Looking at its timeline, Moderna could have efficacy data on its COVID-19 vaccine, called mRNA-1273, by Thanksgiving.
Moderna’s vaccine, which is similar to the work of Pfizer’s German collaborator BioNTech (BNTX), utilizes a novel approach that inserts small doses of genetic instructions into the cells of humans.
These then trigger the production of harmless proteins, which mimic the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The proteins subsequently alert the body to produce antibodies, making the vaccine a proactive measure that protects people from infection by the actual virus.
Right now, Moderna is in the second stage of the trials. The final stage involving 30,000 people is expected to begin in July.
With the vaccine program well underway, Moderna secured manufacturing capabilities through a strategic collaboration with Swiss biotechnology company Lonza (LZAGF).
This partnership with a manufacturing site ensures that Moderna is on track to deliver approximately 500 million doses of the mRNA-1273 vaccine every year and could handle up to 1 billion doses annually starting from 2021.
With such massive competitors like Pfizer (PFE) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) but also other healthcare heavyweights, such as Regeneron (REGN), AstraZeneca (AZN), Eli Lilly (LLY), and Merck (MRK), the best-case scenario for Moderna is to launch its COVID-19 vaccine before its peers.
Considering the progress it has made so far and the 208% jump in Moderna’s shares this year, it looks like investors anticipate that the company can win the COVID-19 vaccine race and capitalize on its future cash-making machine.
After all, no other biotechnology stock has taken more advantage of this health crisis than Moderna. The company exploded from having the biggest IPO in biotechnology history to now being celebrated as the COVID-19 vaccine leader.
Moderna grew from being a biotechnology company worth roughly $4 billion to $5 billion to an impressive $25 billion frontrunner in a few months’ time.
This is especially impressive since Moderna commanded this kind of valuation without having any approved product in the market. In fact, this clinical stage biotechnology company is valued more than several companies with marketed treatments.
While it has no product in the market today, Moderna actually has a robust pipeline that boasts 22 mRNA candidates, with 12 of these already in clinical studies. The lineup includes potential vaccines for the Zika virus along with a promising oncology pipeline.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Moderna’s lead candidate was its cytomegalovirus (CMV) vaccine called mRNA-1647. CMV, which affects almost 80% of adults in the US alone, is caused by a virus related to those that cause chickenpox and mononucleosis.
Moderna expects the Phase 2 study analysis for mRNA-1647 to be completed by the third quarter of 2020, with Phase 3 set to start by early 2021.
The company is also working with fellow biotechnology companies on potential cancer vaccines.
So far, Moderna has been focusing on two candidates which are also currently undergoing Phase 2 testing.
The first candidate is called mRNA-4157, which is a personalized cancer vaccine developed for melanoma patients.
Moderna is evaluating the combination of this vaccine with Merck’s top-selling cancer treatment Keytruda. This could turn out to be a potent combination considering Keytruda’s track record.
The second candidate is a collaboration with AstraZeneca. The latter licensed the rights to one of Moderna’s heart disease drug candidate called AZD8601. If successful, this drug will be marketed to patients in need of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery.
Riding the momentum of its COVID-19 vaccine program, Moderna conducted a secondary stock offering last May. With $1.34 billion in gross proceeds from that sale alone, the company ensured that it’s well-capitalized to fund its development programs.
While its $25 billion market capitalization is pennies compared to fellow COVID-19 vaccine leaders JNJ and Pfizer, the smaller biotechnology company is definitely giving these behemoths a run for their money.
Mad Hedge Biotech & Healthcare Letter
June 25, 2020
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(COVID-19’s STEROID ROADBLOCK)
GILD), (MRNA), (INO), (SVA), (AZN), (MRK), (SNY), (GSK), (NVAX), (JNJ), (PFE), (LLY), (REGN)
Science rarely gets communicated accurately.
Earlier this month, UK health experts said that an existing drug called dexamethasone can cut the risk of death among patients suffering from severe COVID-19.
According to the Oxford University researchers, dexamethasone lowered the COVID-19 deaths by roughly 35% among patients in ventilators and 20% among those who required oxygen.
The experts clarified that this means for every 8 patients on ventilators treated with dexamethasone, they were able to save 1 life.
In response to this study, here’s the gist of what most news outlets reported: “Miracle COVID-19 cure discovered!”
Now, health experts are scrambling to get their voices heard over the loud pronouncements of opportunistic businesses heralding the sale of this life-saving drug.
Days after the UK experts released this information, government authorities have issued warning after warning against stockpiling this drug for personal consumption.
Up until today, they’re still convincing people that dexamethasone is not a community drug and should only be used if prescribed by a medical professional.
That is, dexamethasone is a treatment for the sickest of the sick and should not be used as a preventive treatment.
Here’s how it works, and why it can only be used in severe cases.
The dexamethasone dampens the immune system for patients in ventilators or oxygen. This is effective because in severe cases, the immune system turns against the body, specifically the lungs, causing deaths. That’s what dexamethasone addresses.
This means that dexamethasone cannot be used on mild COVID-19 cases. Patients classified under this category still have relatively healthy immune systems, which would of course be more preferable tools to fight the disease.
Although there has been a misconception about this treatment, this drug is definitely a breakthrough that the world badly needs at the moment. The positive results of its efficacy make it a first-line therapy until a vaccine gets approved.
So far, the leaders in the vaccine race include Moderna (MRNA), Inovio (INO), Sinovac Biotech (SVA), AstraZeneca (AZN)/Oxford, Merck (MRK), Sanofi (SNY), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Novavax (NVAX), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), and Pfizer (PFE).
Dexamethasone has been around for almost 60 years, making the drug available practically everywhere.
It’s also safe since dexamethasone is included in the WHO’s list of essential drugs.
What we know is that this drug has been approved by the UK government to be used on COVID-19 patients in ventilators and oxygen.
Before being identified as a potential COVID-19 cure, dexamethasone has been widely used as a steroid treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, bowel disorders, skin disease, and some cancers.
The average retail cost of this drug is around $50 per 10mg. Since the treatment only requires a low dosage, the price would fall somewhere between $6 to $8 per patient.
Needless to say, this cheap treatment could hurt the sales of competing drugmakers aiming to come up with their own COVID-19 cure.
To date, the leaders in this field include Eli Lilly (LLY), Regeneron (REGN), and of course, Gilead Sciences (GILD).
Among those, the only treatment to show a noticeable effect in treating severe COVID-19 patients is Gilead’s Remdesivir.
Although Remdesivir has not been hailed as a miracle cure, this Gilead product managed to offer sufficient benefits to fuel demand.
According to its Phase 3 trial data, 65% of patients dosed with Remdesivir for five days showed better clinical improvement compared to a standard-of-care group.
When the pandemic broke out, Gilead announced that it’s giving away its remaining supply of Remdesivir, which amounts to roughly 1.5 million doses.
Nonetheless, the company disclosed that it plans to invest up to $1 billion on the development of the drug for COVID-19 patients.
Since government funding also comprises a portion of Remdesivir’s development, the arrangement inevitably raises the question of how much revenue the drug can generate.
After all, pricing will definitely be crucial because the company will have to strike a balance between making an acceptable profit and offering an affordable cure to patients.
Financial analysts estimate that Remdesivir’s potential profit could reach $7.7 billion by 2022.
If these estimates turn out right, then Gilead investors are sitting on a veritable gold mine.
Regardless of Remdesivir’s sales, Gilead remains a giant biotechnology and pharmaceutical company with a market capitalization of $97.18 billion.
In fact, it’s considered as one of the recession-resistant companies today thanks to its diversified portfolio and strategic acquisitions.
One of the main reasons for its stature in the industry is the fact that Gilead continues to be the definitive leader in the HIV market today.
Its top-selling drug Biktarvy recorded an impressive $4.1 billion in sales for the first quarter of 2020 alone, a substantial increase from its $3.6 billion earnings during the same period in 2019.
On top of that, Gilead secured patent exclusivity for Biktarvy until the early 2030s. This all but guarantees that the company’s cash cow remains safe from competition for many years.
The expansion of gene therapy Yescarta to cover the European market also proved to be effective. Sales of this lymphoma treatment jumped from $96 million in the first quarter of 2019 to $140 million in the same period this year.
Meanwhile, Gilead’s $4.9 billion acquisition of Forty Seven in April this year indicated the company’s move to expand its oncology sector. Specifically, blood cancer therapy Magrolimab is projected as the next blockbuster.
All these demonstrate that Gilead is well-positioned to handle major financial and even health crises.
More importantly, Gilead’s position as a leader in the search for a COVID-19 cure indicates its capacity to withstand a possible second wave of this pandemic as well as the potential to boost its sales in the process.
Mad Hedge Biotech & Healthcare Letter
June 9, 2020
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(HERE ARE FIVE VACCINE FRONTRUNNERS TO BUY NOW)
(MRNA), (AZN), (JNJ), (MRK), (PFE), (GSK), (SNY), (NVAX), (INO), (MYL)
Among hundreds of companies working on a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine, the US Government has picked five companies as the most likely candidates to develop the much-needed immunization shot soon.
This is a part of a process that usually takes years and even decades to complete. The goal is to have a COVID-19 vaccine available for Americans by January 2021.
The decision to winnow the field even before final results are out is the administration’s way of focusing its energy and resources on the most promising vaccine candidates, thereby coming up with a solution faster.
Four of the five companies are based in the United States and one is from the United Kingdom.
The list includes Massachusetts-based biotechnology firm Moderna (MRNA), which has a market capitalization of $22.63 billion.
It also features biotechnology and healthcare giants Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), with its $388.08 billion market cap; Merck & Co. (MRK), which has $207.63 billion in market cap, and Pfizer (PFE), with a market cap of $199.92 billion.
Cambridge-based pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca rounds up the list.
Both Moderna and AstraZeneca are already in Phase 2 trials, which means the companies are testing their candidates on human subjects.
Looking at their timeline, the two would most likely move forward to Phase 3, which involves large-scale human trials, in July.
The Phase 3 trials will require roughly 30,000 participants for each vaccine candidate. If all five vaccine candidates reach Phase 3, then that means 150,000 people will be asked to participate as test subjects.
What we do know so far is that the agreements involve commitments from the biotechnology companies regarding intellectual property, the number of doses expected, and the estimated price limits.
Here’s a brief background of the top five companies under Trump’s COVID-19 vaccine radar today.
Moderna (MRNA)
Moderna’s vaccine, called mRNA1273, is undergoing Phase 2 trials. When news broke about Moderna’s progress with the COVID-19 vaccine, shares of the company exploded by more than 200% year-to-date.
For its Phase 2 trial, Moderna seeks to enroll 600 healthy individuals to test mRNA-1273 administered 28 days apart.
Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, Moderna has been a clear favorite of NIH’s Dr. Anthony Fauci.
He called the vaccine “quite promising” and described the results of the Phase 1 study to be “better than we thought.” What we know about the vaccine is that it can “neutralize” the virus in patients.
In terms of its release, Moderna is projected to deploy mRNA-1273 by the end of 2020.
AstraZeneca (AZN)
AstraZeneca joined forces with Oxford University to develop AZD1222, which is now undergoing clinical trials in many sites in the UK.
Although the two have yet to complete its trials, AstraZeneca already agreed to supply 400 million vaccine doses to both the US and the UK in May.
Earlier this month, the company again completed a $750 million agreement with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi the Vaccine Alliance, and the Serum Institute of India (SII) to provide 1 billion vaccine doses to low and middle-income patients.
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)
Johnson & Johnson aims to begin its Phase 1 clinical trial by September, with the ultimate goal to supply over 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine across the globe.
Although Moderna and AstraZeneca are ahead in terms of vaccine development, JNJ has been impressing investors with its efforts outside COVID-19.
In the first quarter of 2020, the healthcare giant showed off a 3.3% year-over-year jump in its sales and a 54.6% increase in its net earnings.
The revenue of its pharmaceutical division rose by 8.7% while its health division saw a 9.2% increase.
Dubbed as the “Dividend King” in the industry, JNJ stayed true to its title as it continues its 58-year streak of raising its quarterly dividend.
Reports show that the company raised its quarterly dividend by 6.3% to reach $1.01 per share, reaping a solid yield of 2.73%.
Regardless of its performance in the vaccine race, JNJ has proven its resilience not only in the COVID-19 crisis but also in past crises like the dot-com bubble and the collapse of the housing market.
Merck (MRK)
Merck’s strategy is to build on the technology of its successful Ebola vaccine and establish partnerships with non-profit research groups.
Like JNJ, Merck is also a stable dividend stock that investors can buy and hold for years. In the past 10 years, this biotechnology leader has posted a profit, even managing to hit double-digits the majority of the time.
This is a trend Merck once again showcased in the first quarter of 2020.
In its latest report, the company showed off $3.2 billion in profit in sales worth $12.1 billion — demonstrating a decent profit margin of 27%.
Sales increased by 11% year over year, with cancer drug Keytruda heading the charge with its 45% revenue growth from the same period in 2019.
Pfizer (PFE)
Pfizer has been collaborating with German drugmaker BioNTech (BNTX) to develop BNT162.
The pharma giant is expected to have the vaccine candidate ready by October this year and be able to produce “hundreds of millions” of COVID-19 doses by 2021.
Although Pfizer and BioNTech joined the race later than Moderna, the big healthcare company’s edge is that it’s actually working on four vaccines simultaneously.
Simply put, this strategy offers them more than a single change of winning.
Along with the other three big biotechnology companies, Pfizer is a safe bet for those looking to invest in cutting-edge vaccine efforts but don’t feel comfortable risking it with a clinical-stage firm.
Like JNJ and Merck, Pfizer’s vaccine work sounds promising, but even if its COVID-19 program falters, the healthcare giant can still make a strong case as an excellent investment.
In its first-quarter report for 2020, Pfizer’s biopharma arm indicated an 11% jump, thanks to top performers like blood clot treatment Eliquis whose sales climbed by 29% to reach $1.3 billion.
Breast cancer medication Ibrance also contributed $1.2 billion, showing off a 10% year-over-year growth while Xtandi sales increased by 25% year over year to record $209 million.
Aside from these, Pfizer is hard at work in spinning off its Upjohn unit to combine with Mylan (MYL). This deal will guarantee Pfizer shareholders with 57% share of the new company called Viatris.
Just a few weeks ago, Trump compared Operation Warp Speed to the Manhattan Project, which was a government-initiated program that led to the development of nuclear weapons in World War II.
However, critics say that the “Skunk Works” initiative in California is a more fitting comparison for this COVID-19 effort. That is, the government could simply be wasting its resources on candidates that might never be able to leave the design stage.
Regardless of where you stand on Trump’s Operation Warp Speed, the fact remains that countless biotechnology and healthcare companies — big and small — are working on a COVID-19 vaccine.
Outside the five companies chosen by the Trump administration, the list of strong contenders includes GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Sanofi (SNY).
Even smaller biotechnology companies like Inovio (INO) and Novavax (NVAX) are going all out on this.
Of course, it would also be foolish to completely disregard CanSino Biologics, which has been giving Moderna a run for its money since Day 1.
Despite not making the cut, these biotechnology and healthcare companies are still in hot pursuit and it’s still very much a neck-to-neck race.
