For investors, economic data is contingent entirely on the concept of measures that undermine the negative impact of COVID-19. For households, businesses, families, and banks, this case can be made, which places a powerful historical weight on individuals and companies that hold the potential to directly impact that concept.
As we move toward a more comprehensive solution to one of modern history’s most defining challenges, the potential for market impact confers with outsized force upon those who hold some piece of “the answer”.
With that in mind, we take a look at some companies poised to make an impact, including: Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE), Halberd Corp (OTCMKTS:HALB), and Moderna Inc (NASDAQ:MRNA).
Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) trumpets itself as a company that discovers, develops, manufactures, and sells healthcare products worldwide. It operates in two segments, Pfizer Innovative Health (IH) and Pfizer Essential Health (EH).
The IH segment focuses on the development and commercialization of medicines and vaccines, and consumer healthcare products in various therapeutic areas, including internal medicine, vaccines, oncology, inflammation and immunology, and rare diseases, as well as consumer healthcare, such as over-the-counter brands comprising dietary supplements, pain management, gastrointestinal, and respiratory and personal care.
Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) most recently announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorized the emergency use of the mRNA vaccine, BNT162b2, against COVID-19 in individuals 16 years of age or older. The vaccine is now authorized under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) while Pfizer and BioNTech gather additional data and prepare to file a planned Biologics License Application (BLA) with the FDA for a possible full regulatory approval in 2021.
According to the release, under Operation Warp Speed, the Department of Defense (DoD) in partnership with agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), will manage allocation and distribution of the vaccine in the U.S. This will be prioritized according to the populations identified by the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) guidelines.
The stock has suffered a bit of late, with shares of PFE taking a hit in recent action, down about -8% over the past week.
Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) pulled in sales of $12.1B in its last reported quarterly financials, representing top line growth of -4.3%. In addition, the company is battling some balance sheet hurdles, with cash levels struggling to keep up with current liabilities ($21.9B against $34.2B, respectively).
Halberd Corp (OTCMKTS:HALB) most recently announced that it has developed a proprietary, highly potent, neutralizing antibody against SARS-CoV-2. The company noted that its antibody has demonstrated very strong receptor specificity and inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 replication.
According to the company’s release, Halberd’s anti-Spike protein monoclonal antibody, recently filed with the United States Patent Office, underwent in vitro studies at Arizona State University (ASU).
Halberd Corp (OTCMKTS:HALB) noted that, based on its findings, the company has commenced designing studies to establish the efficacy, specificity and sensitivity of the antibody. Both Drs. Mitchell S. Felder (neurologist and Halberd consultant) and Patricio Reyes (neurologist, neuropathologist and Halberd’s Chief Technical Officer) believe Halberd’s future investigations will yield the much-needed scientific information on the pathogenesis of COVID-19 as the foundation for a more reliable, rapid diagnostic and more effective prevention and treatment.
Dr. Patricio Reyes commented, “The in-vitro results greatly exceeded our expectations. We originally underestimated the potency assays of the antibody against the SARS-CoV2 antigen. We tested the antibody in Chlorocebus sabaeus epithelial cells (the outer most cells of blood vessels) and expected to see a small number of cells converted into brownish plaques indicating infection. However, after just 24 hours, there had been almost no epithelial cells successfully infected by the COVID-19 virus in the experiment. In other words, the antibody was very aggressive towards the COVID-19 antigen.”
According to the company, based on the promising results seen with this proprietary monoclonal antibody, Halberd Corporation now plans to test the ability of the antibody in blocking the infection of cells and replication of the COVID-19 virus in additional studies. This would demonstrate its potential therapeutic value in preventing damage to vital organs. The company believes that this could be an important potential therapeutic tool targeting COVID-19, either alone or in combination with other monoclonal antibody compounds, such as the treatment that was successfully administered to President Trump.
Halberd Corp (OTCMKTS:HALB) managed to rope in revenues during the company’s most recently reported quarterly financial data. But, with vaccine solutions already receiving some cultural pushback, demand for an alternative solution may be a big story in the weeks and months ahead.
Moderna Inc (NASDAQ:MRNA) promulgates itself as a company advancing messenger RNA (mRNA) science to create a new class of transformative medicines for patients. mRNA medicines are designed to direct the body’s cells to produce intracellular, membrane or secreted proteins that can have a therapeutic or preventive benefit and have the potential to address a broad spectrum of diseases.
The company’s platform builds on continuous advances in basic and applied mRNA science, delivery technology and manufacturing, providing Moderna the capability to pursue in parallel a robust pipeline of new development candidates. Moderna is developing therapeutics and vaccines for infectious diseases, immuno-oncology, rare diseases and cardiovascular diseases, independently and with strategic collaborators.
Moderna Inc (NASDAQ:MRNA) most recently announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) has authorized the emergency use of mRNA-1273, Moderna’s vaccine against COVID-19 in individuals 18 years of age or older. The Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine is now authorized for distribution and use under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA). Delivery to the U.S. Government will begin immediately. Moderna will continue to gather additional data and plans to file a Biologics License Application (BLA) with the FDA requesting full licensure in 2021.
“I want to thank the thousands of participants in our clinical trials and the staff at our clinical trial sites who have been on the front lines of the fight against the virus. I want to thank the NIH and NIAID for their scientific leadership and our partners at BARDA and Operation Warp Speed who have been instrumental to accelerating our progress to this point. I also want to thank the Moderna team, our suppliers and our partners for their tireless work across research, development and manufacturing of our vaccine,” said Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna. “I am proud of what the Moderna team has achieved in collaboration with our partners. We were able to create and manufacture the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine in 11 months from sequence to authorization, while advancing clinical development with a Phase 1, Phase 2 and pivotal Phase 3 study of 30,000 participants. It has been a 10-year scientific, entrepreneurial, and medical journey and I am thankful to all those who have helped us get here today. We remain focused on scaling up manufacturing to help us protect as many people as we can from this terrible disease.”
The stock has suffered a bit of late, with shares of MRNA taking a hit in recent action, down about -11% over the past week. That said, as the vaccine news story has heated up over recent months, the stock has been a sharp outperformer.
Moderna Inc (NASDAQ:MRNA) managed to rope in revenues totaling $157.9M in overall sales during the company’s most recently reported quarterly financial data — a figure that represents a rate of top line growth of 826.4%, as compared to year-ago data in comparable terms. In addition, the company has a strong balance sheet, with cash levels far exceeding current liabilities ($3.3B against $1.5B).
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