Pharmaceutical companies that develop vaccines against Covid-19 have decreased their performance in the stock market during November, after sharp increases during the first year of the coronavirus pandemic. The competition to develop drugs to end the pandemic is not over yet.
The shares of the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer have a yield of 17.06% so far in November on the New York Stock Exchange, trading at a price of 51.20 dollars. The momentum is due in large part to the development of a pill against Covid-19.
The pill, known as PF-07321332 or Paxlovid, must be given in combination with an older antiviral drug called ritonavir. According to Pfizer, it is 89 percent efficient.
The New York City-based US pharmaceutical company signed a licensing agreement last Tuesday to allow wider global access to its experimental pill to make it widely available in 95 low- and middle-income countries, a figure that covers the 53% of the world’s population.
Amin Vera, Deputy Director of Economic Analysis at Black Wallstreet Capital, explained that “the pill, like the one developed by Pfizer, was the next goal after developing the general vaccine against Covid-19, which was easy and fast to administer and accessible to everybody”.
The analyst said that “it is an improvement in financial terms because it generates more value for the brand, which although it will not generate a direct capitalization with the sale of the pill because it transferred the patent, and with this it is positioned as the leader in development biotechnology ”, he added.
The US government ordered Pfizer 10 million pills against Covid-19 for 5.290 million dollars. The order foresees the delivery of the first treatments by the end of the year, and during 2022.
It benefits
Janneth Quiroz, deputy director of Economic Analysis at Monex, commented in an interview that “there is a positive feeling around Pfizer for the development of the pill, because it would have an efficiency of at least 90% and it will benefit countries that do not yet have access to vaccines or who are requesting a third dose, as this medicine will be much more accessible ”.
The pharmaceutical group has already benefited widely from its anticovid vaccine, which allowed it to double its turnover in the third quarter to 24.1 billion dollars, and multiply its net profit in the period by five in relation to the same quarter of 2020, to a total of $ 8.150 million.
So far in 2021, Pfizer has a 39.09% increase in its shares on the New York Stock Exchange, while BioNtech, the laboratory with which it developed its vaccine against Covid-19, advances 294% this year.
Laggards
As Pfizer moves forward, the competition declines. Moderna has a drop of 18.11% in the value of its shares in November, trading at $ 282.69, and even after hitting a high of $ 484.47 on August 9, its price has plummeted almost 41.6% as of this Monday.
The papers of the Asian pharmaceutical Cansino Biologics have a loss of 20.81% so far in the eleventh month of 2021, while the titles of the British AstraZeneca have a loss of 9.35% in the month trading on the NYSE at 56.55 dollars per share .
For its part, the German BioNTech, an ally of Pfizer in the development of its coronavirus vaccine, has a 15.42% yield in the value of its papers so far this month, with a price per share of $ 321.71 on Wall. Street.
Amin Vera commented that in general, the pharmaceutical industry “is a very competitive sector, and the development of new medical technology directly benefits the company that produces it.”
The analyst said that companies continue to develop drugs against other diseases, not just against Covid-19.
“Although AstraZeneca closely follows the development of drugs against Covid-19, it has to its credit a very diversified portfolio of drugs in development that, although they do not stand out, their business continues to advance,” he added.
On the other hand, the advance of the Delta variant of Covid-19 is generating pressure on pharmaceutical companies to increase the effectiveness of their vaccines and to be able to face the wave of infections around the world.
Janneth Quiroz said that although there are declines in the shares of the main pharmaceutical companies that are listed on the stock market, the outlook remains positive since there is still a global over-demand for Covid-19 vaccines in the medium and long term.
“The third booster dose is not yet widely approved, as some countries still have the priority of getting a minimum of two doses for the population, and going forward, there is still a global over-demand,” concluded Janneth Quiroz.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx