Pfizer and Moderna have already brought coronavirus vaccines to market. But that doesn't mean the window of opportunity is closed to others whose vaccine candidates are still in development. In this Motley Fool Live video recorded on May 28, healthcare and cannabis bureau editor and analyst Olivia Zitkus and Fool contributor Adria Cimino discuss how potential vaccine latecomers Vaxart (VXRT +6.94%) and Inovio (INO +0.00%) may eventually stand out and carve out market share.
Olivia Zitkus: Is it right to think that these slow roller stocks, not just Novavax (NVAX 2.25%) but Inovio, Vaxart, that they will benefit less in the long run, even if they're late. What should investors expect from the vaccines that have yet to earn approval?
Adria Cimino: Right. Well, we've got names like Vaxart, Inovio and Novavax as we mentioned. It depends on the timing. Novavax is going to be sooner to market if everything goes well than the others because they're much more advanced. So looking at that, they have the opportunity internationally right away to get into these areas where there's still isn't enough vaccine, they have the opportunity to play a part in vaccine rollout, you could say now practically. For some of the others, they're really going to have to stand out with something in particular later on. Because the idea is if the U.S. and European countries and in other areas have deals with let's say, Pfizer, Moderna or anyone else and they're happy with the vaccine. Are they really going to say, well, OK, now we're going to change? They might be very happy to continue with the same providers. So the idea is if some of the others can stand out in a certain way, for instance, Inovio is developing a pan-COVID vaccine. This is early stage. They're going to start clinical trials this year. But if the vaccine it could cover -- what they're working toward is they can cover all variants. If something like that works out later on, this could definitely be a strength and this could be something that they could gain orders. We were looking at Vaxart. Vaxart has an oral vaccine candidate so it will be taken, it's a pill. So people would love to avoid a jab and so if this works, that too could be something that even if countries are happy with Pfizer and Moderna, they can definitely say, ''Wait a minute, we need to look at this oral vaccine candidate.'' It could be something that could be very interesting in the long run.
