Stocks & ETFs Beneficiaries of Coronavirus Vaccine Ramp-Up

The novel coronavirus has infected more than 5.4 million across the globe, at the time writing, perworldometers.com. The death toll has surpassed 346,500 worldwide. The United States alone has crossed 1.6 million cases — the highest number globally. This is followed by Brazil with more than 365,000 cases. No wonder, the race for vaccine development has heated up to bring the world back to normal.

Currently, “there are at least a hundred horses in the race, and we've got some leaders up front,” per Marc Poznansky, the director of the Vaccine and Immunotherapy Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, as quoted on Yahoo Finance. The World Health Organization has recognised some 10 prime candidates for the potential vaccines as these have entered clinical trials. Plus, 114 candidate vaccines are in preclinical evaluation stage.

So, if there is any success, the stocks of the related vaccine-developers will surge ahead. Below we highlight the candidates.

Inside the Prime Candidates

Per WHO, these candidates include mRNA-1273 vaccine by Moderna Inc. MRNA, potential vaccine ‘ChAdOx1 nCoV-19’ from Oxford University (which is showing limited success as of now) in collaboration with AstraZeneca AZN and Serum Institute of India, RNA vaccine candidate from the collaboration between U.S.-based Pfizer and German pharmaceutical company BioNtech, and DNA-based vaccine from INOVIO Pharmaceuticals INO. Also, U.S.-based Novavax’s NVAX receipt of $388 million of funding from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI) deserves mention  (read: Novavax Soars on Coronavirus Vaccine Funding: ETFs to Gain).

China – the first epicenterof the virus – understandably got heavily engaged in vaccine formulations. Frontrunners among Chinese candidates are Non-Replicating-Viral-Vector-based vaccine from CanSino Biological Inc./Beijing Institute of Biotechnology, vaccines from the Institute of Medical Biology/ Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Wuhan Institute of Biological Products/Sinopharm and Beijing-based Sinovac Biotech’s vaccine candidate PiCoVacc.

Notably, in the United States, Moderna has received $483 million in funding from HHS’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), and is developing its treatment in collaboration with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, per Yahoo Finance.

Candidates in Pre-Clinical Stage

Various parts of world — be it developed or emerging — have found a place in the list.  If we talk about the United States, biotech company Vaxart VXRT announced positive pre-clinical data for its oral tablet vaccine. Non-Replicating-Viral-Vector candidate from University of Georgia/University of Iowa has shown promise. Epivax/University of Georgia’s S protein candidate is also at this stage.

GlaxoSmithKline plc GSK is a prominent name here. Its collaboration with Sanofi (SNY) for formulating S protein candidate, its yet another collaboration with University of Queensland/ Dynavax for developing Molecular-clamp-stabilized-Spike-protein vaccine, and the coalition for Innovax/Xiamen University/GSK’s COVID-19 XWG-03 truncated S (spike) proteins are notable.

Stocks & ETFs in Focus

Given the big push for coronavirus vaccine development, biotech and healthcare ETFs are in the sweet spot now.

Notably, Moderna (shares up 36.6% past month) has considerable exposure to Loncar Cancer Immunotherapy ETF (CNCR) (with about 12.38% weight), iShares Genomics Immunology and Healthcare ETF (IDNA) (with about 11.8% exposure) and Principal Healthcare Innovators Index ETF (BTEC) (5.1% focus). These funds have added in the range of 11% to 15% past month.

Novavax shares have gained 132.5% past month (as of May 22, 2020). The stock has sizable exposure of about 8.1% toInvesco DWA Healthcare Momentum ETF PTH. PTH was up 15.3% past month against about 5% gains for the S&P 500.

AstraZeneca was up 8% past month and has some decent holding in VanEck Vectors Pharmaceutical ETF (PPH) and CNCR. PPH however underperformed the broader market past month.

Overall, biotech ETFs that enjoyed solid momentum past month are ARK Genomic Revolution Multi-Sector ETF (ARKG) (up 23.7%), Virtus LifeSci Biotech Clinical Trials ETF (BBC) (up 19.5%), CNCR (up 15.6%), IDNA (up 12.9%) and Global X Genomics & Biotechnology ETF GNOM (up 12%).

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AstraZeneca PLC (AZN) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Moderna, Inc. (MRNA) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Novavax, Inc. (NVAX) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Loncar Cancer Immunotherapy ETF (CNCR): ETF Research Reports
 
Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (INO) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Invesco DWA Healthcare Momentum ETF (PTH): ETF Research Reports
 
Virtus LifeSci Biotech Clinical Trials ETF (BBC): ETF Research Reports
 
Principal Healthcare Innovators Index ETF (BTEC): ETF Research Reports
 
ARK Genomic Revolution ETF (ARKG): ETF Research Reports
 
Intellicheck Mobilisa, Inc. (IDN) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
VAXART, INC. (VXRT) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Global X Genomics Biotechnology ETF (GNOM): ETF Research Reports
 
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