Dozens of pharma and biotech stocks have skyrocketed in the last few months amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
The coronavirus cases are setting new records in the U.S. and some other countries. The total number of confirmed cases has surpassed 14 million worldwide, claiming at least 593,000 lives. The U.S. alone accounts for a quarter of the global cases and deaths.
The companies are spending heavily on research and development to find a treatment or vaccine for the novel coronavirus. Typically, most pharma and biotech companies spend about 20% of their revenue on R&D activities, but the R&D spending will likely shoot up this year due to the pandemic.
Here, we take a look at the top ten best and worst performing biotech stocks this year in terms of stock price (Data as of July 16).
As we can see in the chart above, Nasdaq-listed Novavax (NVAX, Financial) is the best performing biotech stock this year so far. The Gaithersburg, Maryland-based biopharma company is working on developing a coronavirus vaccine. It is among the front-runners in Covid-19 vaccine development.
Novavax recently joined the U.S. government’s Operation Warp Speed program. It has received a staggering $1.6 billion from the government to speed up the development of its coronavirus vaccine.
Other top performers in terms of stock price include many smaller players like CydoDyn Inc. (OTCPK:CYDY), but Moderna (MRNA, Financial) also posted a gain of over 300%.
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