Summary

• Several pharmaceutical companies are conducting clinical and human trials to test an effective vaccine for Covid-19.
• Some of the companies including AstraZeneca, GSK, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, and Sanofi are doing good both in terms of their trials and securing deals for supply of their vaccines.
• ABPI has said that the pharmaceutical industry led around 72 per cent of the vaccine projects with rest being developed by academic, public sector, and the NPOs.

Pharmaceutical companies and medical researchers with a profound knowledge gained from developing vaccines for similar viruses earlier are actively engaged in clinical and human trials to test an effective vaccine for Covid-19. In this article, we would bring a snapshot of some key efforts made by five potential vaccine candidates from the UK that could bring promising results.

AstraZeneca plc (LON: AZN) is a global biopharmaceutical firm that works on finding, developing, and commercialisation of prescription medicines. The company focuses on the treatment of ailments in various domains, including oncology, cardiovascular, renal and metabolism, besides respiratory and immunology. The company is located at Cambridge in the UK and operates in over 100 countries.

Having secured several supply deals, the vaccine frontrunner from Britain, AstraZeneca, is trying to increase capacity to meet the demand needs for three billion doses for its adenovirus-based Covid-19 vaccine, AZD1222. On 1 September 2020, the company informed that it would pay approximately $20 million as an initial payment to Oxford Biomedica Plc for reserving around 1,000 litres of production capacity for at least one and a half years. There is a manufacturing deal for three years that extends the previous agreement of May 2020 between the two British companies, which was meant for one year and 200 litres of capacity.

AstraZeneca is developing the vaccine with Oxford University. The vaccine recently entered phase 3 of human trials. AstraZeneca is also working around an efficient supply chain to produce more than 3 billion doses of its vaccine that has potentials to emerge as a leading vaccine player for Covid-19. Countries across the world are attempting to secure the vaccine doses to the company.

In end-August 2020, the European Union (EU) consented to pay $396 million in advance to AstraZeneca for purchasing approximately 300 million doses of the AZD1222 vaccine. The pact stated an optional requirement of an additional 100 million doses for a later date. This agreement builds on a previous deal between AstraZeneca and the European Inclusive Vaccines alliance led by Germany, France, Italy, and the Netherlands. The four EU nations agreed to purchase 300 million doses of the company’s vaccine for $843 million.

Stock performance of Astrazeneca

On 2 September 2020, at 11.42 AM, the company’s stock was trading at £8,294.00, up 1.18 per cent from its previous day’s close of £8,197.00. The 52-week low-high range was recorded as GBP 6,221.00 and GBP 9,320.00. With a market capitalisation (Mcap) of £ 107,567.51 million, the stock provided a positive return on price, which was 7.01 per cent on a year to date (YTD) basis. The total volume of shares traded at the time of reporting was recorded at 418,789.

Also read: USFDA Approval for AstraZeneca Vaccine Bring Cheer at FTSE 100 as well

Also read: When Will A Covid-19 Vaccine Be Available In Britain?

GlaxoSmithKline plc (LON: GSK) has partnered with Vir Biotechnology of the US that focuses on mixing immunologic details with innovative technologies to treat and prevent serious infectious illnesses. The two companies have initiated to test their experimental antibody on early-stage Covid-19 patients. This brings them to join the race to select a winner among the probable category of antiviral drugs to fight the coronavirus pandemic. In last week of August 2020, GSK informed that it plans to test the single injection on recently diagnosed high-risk cases of Covid-19 infection to check its potentials for preventing hospitalisation. In April this year, GSK invested $250 million in Vir Biotechnology and had agreed to associate on the antibody.

The British pharmaceutical company has additionally partnered with Sanofi from France to develop a vaccine. In early August 2020, GSK discussed with the EU Commission regarding the supply of more than 300 million vaccine doses, indicating that the company has reached a successful stage in its efforts to develop a vaccine. The vaccine would potentially get into clinical trials by this year, and if all goes well with regulatory approvals, the company targets to wrap up the development required for making its vaccine available by the second half of 2021.

GSK has said that it would partner with Clover Biopharmaceuticals’ biotechnology firm to provide it with the company’s proprietary adjuvants, compounds that are known to enhance the effectiveness of vaccines.

Additionally, GSK would also collaborate with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), an alliance that finances and coordinates the development of new vaccines to prevent and contain infectious diseases, to support the worldwide endeavours to develop a vaccine for Covid-19 infections. GSK is also offering its adjuvant technology for swift development of the vaccine, besides associating with The University of Queensland from Australia.

Stock performance of GlaxoSmithKline

On 2 September 2020, at 12.56 PM, the company’s stock was trading at £1,475.80 up 2.08 per cent from its previous day’s close of £1,445.80. The 52-week low-high range was recorded as GBP 1,374.60 and GBP 1,846.00. With a market capitalisation (Mcap) of £ 72,540.81 million, the stock provided a negative return on price, which was 18.65 per cent on a year to date (YTD) basis. The total volume of shares traded at the time of reporting was recorded at 2,050,645.

Also read: Early Vaccine Hopes May Put A Life to The Dried Dividends for The UK Investors

Johnson & Johnson (LON:OR34) is a company known for developing medical devices, consumer packaged goods and pharmaceutical.

In August 2020, the company announced that it would begin a phase 3 trial for its Covid-19 vaccine in September by enrolling up to 60,000 healthy people above the age of 18 across nearly 180 locations in the US and other countries, making it the largest late-stage trial testing programme. The company intends to find out if the vaccine is safe and effective and follow the trials by research for more than two years. It would use epidemiology and modeling data to forecast and plan where the studies would be conducted. Last month Canada announced a pact in principle with Johnson & Johnson for purchasing its Covid-19 vaccine.

Johnson & Johnson said in August that it would supply 100 million doses of its vaccine Ad26.COV2.S to the US in case it gets clearance from the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA). According to a deal with the company, the US government would commit little more than $1 billion, meaning $10 for each dose of its vaccine. It is to be noted that per dose price for AstraZeneca’s vaccine is estimated at $4, while $19.50 for the vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech, under the US government’s pacts with these pharmaceutical companies. Johnson & Johnson has promised to provide its Covid-19 vaccine under a not-for-profit basis during the pandemic.

Johnson & Johnson has partnered with the Rega Institute for Medical Research, the University of Leuven from Belgium for its efforts. It is involved in identification of existing or new compounds having antiviral properties against COVID-19. It has additionally associated with the BARDA, part of US Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), besides forming a joint working effort with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) to develop a vaccine for Covid-19. The company has plans to rapidly increase its manufacturing capacities to achieve a target of offering more than one billion doses of its vaccine throughout the world.

Stock performance of Johnson & Johnson

On 2 September 2020, at 13.58 PM, the company’s stock on LSE was at USD 151.30 remaining unchanged from its previous day’s close. The stock provided a positive return on price, which was 3.85 per cent on a year to date (YTD) basis.

Pfizer Inc (LON:OQIN) is a US multinational pharmaceutical company with head office in New York City. Known as one of the world's largest research-based pharmaceutical companies, it works to develop and manufacture healthcare products, including medicines and vaccines.

Pfizer has recently completed a first-round evaluation of some antiviral compounds that were earlier in development and potentially contained the replication of coronaviruses that were same as those causing COVID-19 in cultured cells.

Pfizer has partnered with BioNTech SE, a biotechnology company from Germany to jointly develop BioNTech’s mRNA-based vaccine for Covid-19. The joint effort aims to expedite global development of the vaccine.

On 2 September 2020, Pfizer announced to work with Florence, a company that provides the largest site and sponsor connectivity platform across 27 countries, for assistance in its global phase 2/3 COVID-19 vaccine study. This would support the trial and guarantee that the study could continue digitally due to restricted onsite visits during the pandemic.

As per recent reports, Pfizer could have logistics-related problems due to limitations of storing its mRNA vaccine that requires to be stored at -94° Fahrenheit and would last only one day at refrigerated temps between 35.6° and 46.4°. These issues indicated that Pfizer's vaccine could only be used at hospitals having necessary arrangements. However, Pfizer contested this and claimed that its vaccine could be stored at refrigerated temperature for up to 48 hours. The company has developed shipping containers with dry ice to solve the logistical issue.

Stock performance of Pfizer

On 2 September 2020, at 14.51 PM, the company’s stock on LSE was at USD 36.80 remaining unchanged from its previous day’s close. The total volume of shares traded at the time of reporting was recorded at 359.

Also read: British Government Signs Up for another 90 Million Doses of Covid-19 Vaccine

Also read: Lens on COVID-19 Vaccine Developments: Pfizer & BioNTech Granted FDA Fast-track Designation and more

Sanofi SA (LON:0O59) is a biopharmaceutical company. It manufactures various pharmaceutical products, including drugs, generic medicines, cosmetics, food supplement, and medical devices. It focuses on several areas of human health such as gynaecology, diabetes, cancer, and cardiology, among other ailments.

Sanofi has collaborated with BARDA (Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority) to develop a vaccine candidate for Covid-19. It is using an earlier development of SARS vaccine candidate by combining its recombinant DNA technology. In addition, the company is working with CEPI and sharing its vaccine related R&D experience.

The company is working on two varieties of vaccines for Covid-19. While one would use an adjuvant by GSK for improving its efficacy. It has already bagged deals for this vaccine from the US and Britain; there are talks with the EU for supplying 300 million doses. The second is being developed with Translate Bio from the US and is based on the mRNA technology. This vaccine had shown an immune response in non-human studies and human trials would begin in November 2020.

According to the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industries (ABPI), by mid-August 2020, there were around 167 vaccine projects in development across the globe with 29 in the clinical trial stage. As per the estimates made in April 2020, the pharmaceutical industry led approximately 72 per cent of the vaccine projects, while the rest were worked by academic, public sector, and the not for profit organisations (NPOs). The ABPI represents companies of various sizes that invest in discovering the medicines of the future.

Stock performance of Sanofi SA

On 2 September 2020, at 14.21 PM, the company’s stock on LSE was at EUR 85.12 up by 1.20% from its previous day’s close. The total volume of shares traded at the time of reporting was recorded at 71,091.

Conclusion

At the outset of the coronavirus pandemic, many experts believed that a vaccine would be made available in about one to one and a half years’ time frame. A successful vaccine with no side effects generally takes several phases of clinical trials and many years to be launched into the market. As a standard, about one out of ten experimental vaccines get the regulatory stamp. This suggests that if more companies and institutions work around developing a potential vaccine, there would be an increased chance of achieving success. This rush for developing a successful vaccine suggests a good revenue generation opportunity for pharmaceutical companies and investors need to keep a close watch on any developments from the companies in this regard.