After all, vaccines remain one of the most prominent lines of defense against the coronavirus pandemic now. Could these top vaccine stocks in the stock market now be wise investments? Some of the notable biotech and pharma stocks that are trending these days include Moderna, Inc., Pfizer Inc., Novavax Inc.,
Best Vaccine Stocks To Buy
Moderna Inc.
Moving on, we have Moderna, an enterprise with a diverse clinical portfolio of vaccines and therapeutics across many modalities. With its platform, the company develops technologies that enable the development of mRNA medicines for diverse applications. Notably, its modalities include cancer vaccines and localized regenerative therapeutics among others.
Moderna's success over the next few years hinges on recurring demand for its COVID-19 vaccine. With the emergence of new coronavirus variants, it seems likely that demand will remain strong.
Johnson & Johnson
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) is a multinational corporation that develops medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and consumer packaged goods. With over 130 years of experience, the company is one of the world’s largest and most broadly-based health care companies.
J&J is so big that its success doesn't depend on any one product. The company's diversified operations across healthcare and its status as a Dividend King position Johnson & Johnson stock as one of the safest stock picks for long-term investors.
Pfizer Inc.
Pfizer made a great decision in 2020 when it teamed up with German biotechnology company BioNTech to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. That vaccine was the first to win U.S. EUA and has been the biggest commercial success story so far.
Although the Pfizer vaccine is proving profitable, the pharmaceutical company's stock hasn't appreciated proportionally in value. Pfizer's size makes it difficult for any product to substantially change its stock price, and some of the company's other products have experienced clinical setbacks. Pfizer will also lose key patents for several drugs later in this decade.
Nevertheless, Pfizer appears well-positioned to deliver solid price growth at least for the next five years or more. The company also pays an attractive dividend, making the stock a longtime favorite of income-seeking investors.
BioNTech
As Pfizer's partner, BioNTech is benefiting from Pfizer's financial resources, global manufacturing capacity, and regulatory expertise. The company's messenger RNA (mRNA) technology was critical to the success of the jointly developed COVID-19 vaccine.
Aside from the COVID-19 vaccine, the company's lead drug candidate is an experimental mRNA therapy targeting melanoma and other solid tumors. BioNTech's drug pipeline also includes multiple early-stage candidates targeting various types of cancer.
Novavax Inc.
Novavax is a biotechnology company that is developing and commercializing innovative vaccines to prevent serious infectious diseases. The company’s proprietary recombinant technology platform combines the best aspects of genetic engineering to efficiently produce highly immunogenic nanoparticles that can meet global health needs.
While Novavax is currently lagging behind several of its larger rivals, it could still be a big winner in the COVID-19 vaccine market. The company hopes to advance a combination COVID-19/flu vaccine to clinical testing later in 2021. Its NanoFlu influenza vaccine, in a late-stage direct-comparison study, proved more effective than the leading flu vaccine Fluzone Quadrivalent.
Ocugen
This drug company is partnered with Bharat Biotech, an Indian drugmaker with a COVID-19 vaccine already authorized for use in India. Ocugen is helping to obtain regulatory approval in the U.S. for the vaccine, called Covaxin. Since Ocugen plans to seek full FDA approval for Covaxin rather than filing for EUA, the company will likely have to conduct a clinical study of Covaxin in the U.S.
Gritstone bio, Inc.
What if cancer patients could have a therapy specifically tailored to fight their tumors? Gritstone Bio (NASDAQ:GRTS) is working to make it happen. The biotech is evaluating a personalized cancer immunotherapy called Granite in a phase 2 clinical study.
Gritstone isn't just focused on developing personalized immunotherapies. Its pipeline includes an "off-the-shelf" cancer immunotherapy that's in phase 2 testing and a COVID-19 vaccine in phase 1 testing. Gritstone thinks that its self-amplifying messenger RNA platform could make its COVID-19 vaccine more effective against emerging coronavirus variants than current vaccines on the market.
Vaxart
This small company expects to advance its COVID-19 vaccine, which is effective with just a single dose and administered orally, into phase 2 testing in 2021.
As well, new Covid-19 vaccines are in the pipeline, along with booster shots for variant strains and therapeutic treatments for Covid-19 sufferers, and perhaps oral and nasal delivery of vaccines. Sanofi is working on an mRNA Covid vaccine with Translate Bio and on a Covid vaccine using a different technology with GlaxoSmithKline Plc. Merck, with Ridgeback Therapeutics, is working on an anti-viral drug therapy for Covid-19 sufferers that would stop the Covid-19 virus from replicating in the body.
More than just COVID-19 Vaccines
The tremendous efficacy of mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines has generated plenty of excitement about its potential use in vaccines for other diseases. And vaccines may be just the beginning. Researchers used mRNA to deliver CRISPR gene-editing technology that could permanently treat a rare genetic disease in humans—an advance that experts say has implications far beyond the treatment of a single condition.
“To imagine using [CRISPR] as a therapy for people, you need to figure out how to get these editing tools into the cells you’re trying to fix. That’s where messenger RNA comes in,” explains Daniel Anderson, a professor of chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a co-founder of CRISPR Therapeutics, which uses CRISPR technology to develop medications.
Explosive biotech stocks for gene-editing now!
Final thought
Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines have transformed the fight against COVID-19 thanks to the success achieved by Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), BioNTech (NASDAQ: BNTX), and Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA). The technology also holds significant potential in fighting other diseases.
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