MRK - This Under-the-Radar Stock Is a Better Way to Bet on Coronavirus Vaccines
More than a dozen companies are now in some way involved in the hunt for a vaccine for COVID-19. These include household names, like Merck, and less famous ones, like Dynavax. Considering how crowded this race is, it is difficult to know which company will end up benefiting the most from its efforts to end the ongoing pandemic. Since most of these vaccine candidates will never make it to the market, some of the companies involved in this hunt won't get much in return for the investment they are currently allocating to these efforts.
One way to avoid incurring significant losses when investing in companies that are currently working on vaccines is to consider the company's prospects outside of its COVID-19 programs. Using that lens, there's one company in particular that looks especially worth considering: Emergent BioSolutions (NYSE: EBS).
Emergent specializes in manufacturing pharmaceutical products for outbreaks and infectious diseases. Thanks to this expertise, Emergent has managed to land manufacturing deals with several companies that are currently developing vaccines for COVID-19. Two of these partnerships in particular are worth mentioning.