8 Stocks Leading the Way to a Coronavirus Vaccine

Nearly six months into the coronavirus pandemic, the world waits nervously wondering if there is any end in sight. Roughly 19 million cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed globally with over 700,000 deaths. In the United States alone, 160,000 lives have been lost to the devastating disease and nearly 5 million coronavirus cases have been confirmed across the nation.

In the months since the pandemic began, some of the most prominent names in the pharmaceutical industry have stepped up to develop coronavirus vaccines, therapeutics, and treatments at an unparalleled scale. Major competitors have entered unprecedented vaccine partnerships in an effort to accelerate the development timeline and bring effective coronavirus solutions to market sooner and safer. At this moment, there are 199 potential COVID-19 vaccines in development at various phases of the clinical process.

If you're having a tough time keeping track of the companies working on a potential COVID-19 vaccine, you're not alone. These are the eight stocks you should train your focus on as the coronavirus vaccine race narrows.

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Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) is proving to be a serious front-runner in the coronavirus vaccine race due to its much-discussed collaboration with German company BioNTech. Pfizer moved its lead prospective COVID-19 vaccine with BioNTech into a phase 2/3 trial of 30,000 individuals at the end of July. If the vaccine is a success in the clinical stage, Pfizer and its German partner hope to pursue regulatory approval in the autumn. The companies have already pledged hundreds of millions of vaccine doses to nations around the world, including the U.S. and Japan, assuming the candidate is approved.

From an investment standpoint, Pfizer looked like an attractive buy before the prospect of a coronavirus vaccine came into the picture. Last year, the company amassed $51.8 billion in revenue. In the first and second quarters of 2020, Pfizer reported earnings of $12 billion and $11.8 billion, respectively.

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AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) has joined forces with the University of Oxford to create a potential coronavirus vaccine called AZD1222. The company inked a $1.3 billion deal with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) as part of the ongoing Operation Warp Speed (OWS) initiative back in May. Under the terms of the deal, AstraZeneca will provide a minimum of 300 million doses to the U.S., with the earliest doses ready as soon as October.

On July 20, 2020 the company reported that AZD1222 elicited a strong immune response in all tested subjects in a phase 1/2 trial run by Oxford University, which is still in progress. Phase 2/3 studies of the vaccine candidate are ongoing in South Africa, Brazil, and the U.K., and a phase 3 study is expected to begin in the U.S. in the upcoming quarter. Astrazeneca's balance sheet looks strong regardless of its potential vaccine success. In the second quarter, the company's revenue was up 19% year over year at $6.3 billion. Its stock price barely moved when the market took a nosedive in March.

Moderna (Nasdaq: MRNA) has completed enrollment for a phase 2 human trial of its coronavirus vaccine candidate called mRNA-1273, while a U.S.-based phase 3 study involving 30,000 subjects commenced at the end of July. The phase 3 study is occurring in partnership with BARDA and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Moderna expects to finish its enrollment for the study next month.

The company signed a $483 million development and manufacturing contract for mRNA-1273 with BARDA in April. Moderna has said it could charge up to $37 for every dose of mRNA-1273 in certain smaller transactions. Although Moderna has never released a product on the market, it hopes to make up to 1 billion doses of the vaccine annually if it is approved. The stock crushed analysts' estimates in the second quarter, with the company reporting $66.4 million in revenue, up 25% from Q2 2019.

British pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) is working on several coronavirus vaccines with other companies. Its most notable collaboration is with Sanofi (Nasdaq: SNY). A phase 1/2 study of the unnamed vaccine adjuvant is set to begin in September, with a phase 3 trial anticipated to be underway before the end of the year. GlaxoSmithKline is hoping to gain regulatory approval for its vaccine with Sanofi early next year and intends to make 1 billion doses in 2021. The collaboration led the companies to snag a $2.1 billion OWS contract, with GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi agreeing to provide the U.S. up to 600 million vaccine doses in the future.

GlaxoSmithKline has also entered separate collaborations with Medicaco and Clover Pharmaceuticals. Both potential vaccines are in early-stage human trials. The company just delivered strong earnings of approximately $10 billion in the second quarter and has a robust pipeline to bolster its future success regardless of a vaccine.

ALSO READ: 4 Coronavirus Stocks to Watch This Summer

Novavax (Nasdaq: NVAX) stock is up over 3,600% since Jan. 2, 2020 mostly because of the significant hype surrounding its potential coronavirus vaccine. On Aug. 4, 2020 the company announced positive data from phase 1 of its ongoing phase 1/2 human study of the vaccine candidate, called NVX-CoV2373. During the placebo-controlled observer-blind study, 131 subjects between the ages of 18 and 59 were administered five and 25 micrograms of NVX-CoV2373 in two separate dosings. All subjects experienced a notable boost in neutralizing antibodies upon receiving the vaccine candidate in stark contrast to COVID-19 patients who recovered on their own, with minimal adverse symptoms reported.

Novavax has already received $1.6 billion in OWS funding. If the vaccine candidate is approved, Novavax has agreed to supply as many as 100 million doses to the U.S. before the year is out.

5 Winning Stocks Under $49
We hear it over and over from investors, “I wish I had bought Amazon or Netflix when they were first recommended by the Motley Fool. I’d be sitting on a gold mine!” And it’s true. And while Amazon and Netflix have had a good run, we think these 5 other stocks are screaming buys. And you can buy them now for less than $49 a share! Simply click here to learn how to get your copy of “5 Growth Stocks Under $49” for FREE for a limited time only.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) is another household name leading the way to a coronavirus vaccine. The company's subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceutica is developing the vaccine, called Ad26.COV2-S. Janssen just signed an agreement with the U.S. government on Aug. 5, 2020 to supply 100 million doses of the vaccine if the Food and Drug Administration approves it or grants the candidate Emergency Use Authorization. BARDA is pledging more than $1 billion in funding to Janssen under the terms of the agreement.

Results from a pre-clinical trial of Ad26.COV2-S showed that the vaccine candidate elicited a positive immune response in non-human primates. A phase 1/2a study of the vaccine candidate began last month, and a phase 3 human trial is targeted to begin in September.

Inovio (Nasdaq: INO) may not have the star power of some of the other big names leading the coronavirus vaccine race, but its DNA-based candidate INO-4800 is worth watching. The biotechnology company released interim data from an ongoing phase 1 human study of INO-4800 at the end of June. Inovio's early data showed that by the sixth week of the study, 94% of the subjects who received two doses of the vaccine candidate experienced a positive immune response.

In a separate study of INO-4800 on non-human primates, the vaccine stimulated memory T and B cell reactions and elicited an immune defense against the live virus 13 weeks following vaccination. Right now, Inovio has a phase 1 study of INO-4800 running in the U.S. as well as phase 1/2 trials underway in both China and South Korea. A phase 2/3 human trial of the prospective vaccine is slated to begin before summer ends. With shares of Inovio up nearly 700% year to date, it's clear that investors are gaining confidence in this little-known biotech and what it could bring to the vaccine race.

Vaxart (Nasdaq: VXRT) is a small-cap stock that has come a long way since the start of the year. On Jan. 2, 2020 you could buy one share of Vaxart for just $0.36. The stock has experienced a price surge of more than 2,400% in the past months, with shares now sitting at about $9 each. After evaluating numerous potential oral COVID-19 vaccines, several of which had produced a positive immune response against SARS-CoV-2 in animals during a pre-clinical trial, Vaxart announced its lead candidate on May 20, 2020.

Vaxart is partnering with Emergent BioSolutions (NYSE: EBS) and Kindred Biosciences (Nasdaq: KIN) to manufacture the oral vaccine, which will soon be evaluated in a phase 1 human trial. While Vaxart's oral COVID-19 vaccine has yet to receive the funding boost from the government that many of its competitors have, the candidate was selected for an OWS challenge study of non-human primates, a sign that the U.S. government is keeping a close eye on the vaccine's progress.

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There's no doubt that the coronavirus vaccine race is just that. Under normal circumstances, a vaccine can take up to decade or longer to test and develop. Because of the landmark funding provided by OWS and other government initiatives, as well as the unprecedented collaborations spearheading the vaccine race, this timeline is being shortened significantly.

Companies like Pfizer and AstraZeneca are hoping to have the earliest doses of their vaccines on the market before year's end. The goal of OWS is to have 300 million doses of a coronavirus vaccine available to the public by January of next year. Medical experts have mixed opinions as to the exact time by which a vaccine could be available. Many think that the middle of next year is a fair guess. There is also still widespread uncertainty regarding the long-term efficacy of these vaccines. Until concrete data from ongoing and upcoming late-stage trials comes out, the vaccine timeline remains a guesstimate.

5 Winning Stocks Under $49
We hear it over and over from investors, “I wish I had bought Amazon or Netflix when they were first recommended by the Motley Fool. I’d be sitting on a gold mine!” And it’s true. And while Amazon and Netflix have had a good run, we think these 5 other stocks are screaming buys. And you can buy them now for less than $49 a share! Simply click here to learn how to get your copy of “5 Growth Stocks Under $49” for FREE for a limited time only.

Rachel Warren has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Emergent BioSolutions. The Motley Fool recommends Johnson & Johnson. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.