CTLT - Coronavirus Vaccine Stocks: Investors Cannot Overlook These Risks
The collective effort of pharmaceutical companies to develop a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine is often referred to as a "race", but it's not clear investors understand what the race is against. The "race" doesn't pit one company against another, as the typical first-to-market advantage doesn't apply during a pandemic. Instead, the race is against the coronavirus pandemic itself.
Admittedly, that's a bit abstract, but it highlights an important truth of drug development and the race to develop a coronavirus vaccine: No vaccine candidate will be successful on the basis of clinical trial results alone. Pharmaceutical companies that exit clinical trials with encouraging data will need to manufacture, package, and store product before their efforts are unambiguously successful.
Reframing vaccine development with a more encompassing view of what's at stake reveals the opportunities and risks facing individual investors wrapped up in the pharma stocks of the moment.