Hey everyone,
With the resurgence of the covid outbreak and record numbers of infection rates, i’d like to ask you all which companies you think will be the first to produce a vaccine.
I heard rumors that the healthcare systems are getting things in place, to be able to quickly distribute a vaccine once it comes to fruition, I can imagine the company that gets this to market first will make a killing from funding/backing.
Thoughts? Post your comments below 
I have no clue. I am a little bit anxious when for example a US company would have a vaccine ready, the US will claim it first, leaving the rest of the world like “WTF man!”
Hey Chantal.
Yea, I think it’s anyones guess right now.
179,000 new cases yesterday and the market keeps booming on up.
The only thing which makes me a little bullish right now, is that the markets have reached these highs using only half of the companies. Like the S&P500 is mainly tech stocks, so when the rest of the stocks eventually catch up … could we end up seeing 3500 or 4000 for S&P? who knows.
I thought Pfizer stock would have been higher, might add this to the buy list soon.
There are lot of penny stocks traders going full on all those biotech companies. Too risky for me. Pure speculation.
I think a lot of investors have priced in everything. Looks like there are no big dips like in March anymore.
Not a cure as such but remdesivir, an anti-viral, is being used widely around the world. Remdesivir is manufactured by Gilead (GILD).
Gilead were giving this on a compassionate basis, but I believe that program has run it’s course and a price is now attached. I know trusts within NHS England and Wales were using it, and potentially continue to do so.
Even with mixed results of remdesivir use, Gilead could see huge benefits for their revenue come Q3 as we fight for vaccine. They’re also working on an inhaled version of remdesivir.
To be honest, I won’t bet on that and I really don’t care… it’s already a topic far beyond the limits of “find a good bet to profit”. (no problem at all on whom is doing that)
I don’t think that just one company will have a vaccine done in 2021, and I hope that besides some initial euphoria, be the first probably won’t mean to turn in a 10x overnight.
I agree - I’d also say vaccine speculation is priced in to a lot of the bigger pharma companies involved in the research at the moment.
IBIO gave me £200+ today bought yesterday and sold today.
Wish I posted this yesterday haha 
As a med student and a person that is working in the field I can tell you that the “vaccine” will be so cheap to manufacture and distribute and all major companies will produce it . It will not push the stock of a specific one based on sales(maybe hype and fomo will drive some pumps and dumps ) but thats it. My advice? Look at countries that are hit the hardest and make some plays there
I have a list of Brazilian stocks traded on NYSE 
I avoid investing in companies claiming to be working on a covid-cure because its easy to make the claim and hard to show results.
Often enough the companies drop the pursuit once someone else achieves it because they can’t afford the R&D.
Like some stated here, even if we “need” vaccine it won’t be one company, as there is no single corporate that can handle load.
But it is also very possible that like with all other "virus pandemics " vaccine is out when the virus died out so it was not used at all. You can look up in history…
I avoid risky speculation on any level…
But surely you want to invest in these countries once some kind of “bottom point” is reached, don’t you?
Investing now in a country were Covid is still expanding, such as Brazil for example seems quite risky.
What are everyones thoughts?
I am a practising medicinal chemist.
I agree with a lot of the comments here regarding treatments for covid.
All the big pharma companies will be working on a vaccine, and there are multiple technologies they are using to achieve this. As a result it is likely that they will all end up with one or more viable vaccines sometime in 2021.
State governments will be involved in this too and there will be plenty of collaboration between companies. They all know this is bigger than turning a profit, and a vaccine will benefit all.
Short answer is pick a pharma company you like the sound of, or 2. And invest there. Pharma is not going anywhere, people will always get sick, and there are always new diseases. Companies that have a large research arm can be seen to be riskier investments due to the high cost and risk of research. But gains can be big if a blockbuster hits the market.
There is an excellent blog called In The Pipeline by a chemist called Derek Lowe. He has a lot more expertise than me on this subject, and has a lot of accessible posts on the covid treatment pipeline. I’m sure you’ll get some inspiration there
I work in the pharmaceutical industry and here’s a few things you should know : viruses are tricky buggers to deal with because they mutate so rapidly, which makes developing a vaccine a tricky proposition. Usually for a drug to come to market safely it takes an average of 10 to 15 years. Even if one was developed in the near future I personally wouldn’t take it for safety issues. Right now speculation is rife about who’s going to be the first to market and the share prices are all over the place. At the end of the day it’s all just a bet. I wouldn’t put my hopes up in a cure for Covid anytime soon and that’s assuming the virus doesn’t mutate. To date there is no effective flu vaccination they just sell useless placebos and rip off governments from it. If you are into betting you may get lucky and make a buck but know that a cure and a vaccine are years away imho.
Nice to hear some sound views from people in the industry.
my personal opinion is that if a pharma company doesn’t have a sizeable research arm, it lacks a promising future to bring to market new and exciting medications. Given the choice, I would invest in those with the best performing research arms over those who just have a single wonder-drug that faces a limited lifespan of being protected from generics. the later however may pay a fat juicy dividend until that protection ends, so it is still a valid pick, just not what I am looking for in pharma.
Even with mixed results of remdesivir use, Gilead could see huge benefits for their revenue come Q3 as we fight for vaccine. They’re also working on an inhaled version of remdesivir.
News today of US securing a huge percentage of remdesivir supply from Gilead.