Recently, I talked about Moderna being an attractive investment. Moderna is one of the companies that’s leading in the race to develop a vaccine against COVID-19.
This morning, Pfizer has delivered good news related to the company’s trial results.
Vaccine candidate was found to be more than 90% effective in preventing COVID-19 in participants without evidence of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection in the first interim efficacy analysis. Study enrolled 43,538 participants, with 42% having diverse backgrounds, and no serious safety concerns have been observed; Safety and additional efficacy data continue to be collected
This is indeed good news as a second wave of coronavirus infections rage across the United States and Europe.
Pfizer CEO has also said that he is willing to take the vaccine first to demonstrate the safety.
From a stock price perspective, Pfizer has delivered negative returns of 3% in the last one year. However, with the news, the stock is higher by 8% in early morning trade.
If the positive developments continue and if Pfizer is able to deliver a vaccine against the COVID-19, I expect the positive stock momentum to continue into 2021.
It’s worth noting that following the positive results of the Phase 3 trials, the United Kingdom is expecting to receive 10 million doses of the vaccine by the end of the year.
I am expecting more such commitments from governments globally and this will be positive news for PFE stock. At a forward P/E of 12.6, Pfizer stock is attractive for medium to long-term investors.
I believe that investors who are looking at pharmaceutical companies that are likely to deliver a vaccine against COVID-19 can consider one of the following stocks.
- Moderna
- Pfizer
- AstraZeneca
For Moderna, the Phase 3 trials are expected to begin in 2021. Moderna has also secured commitments from United States, European Commission, Japan and Qatar for buying the vaccine.
Similarly, AstraZeneca is also close to delivering a vaccine. As a matter of fact, the company will deliver 4 million doses of the vaccine to the U.K. government by the end of this year.
AstraZeneca also has a global supply chain that will enable production of 3 billion doses of the vaccine once regulatory approvals are achieved.