Whatever happened to healthcare companies being recession resistant?
On Monday, shares of Emergent Biosolutions (NYSE: EBS) fell 10.5%, BioMarin Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: BMRN) dropped 10.1%, and NuVasive (NASDAQ: NUVA) fell 10.2%, all more than the S&P 500, which slipped 7.6% from concerns over the continued global spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
Emergent Biosolutions' drop is the most puzzling of the bunch, since the company develops and sells vaccines against bacteria and viruses. Emergent hasn't said it's working on a vaccine or treatment for COVID-19 directly, but the company does have a contract manufacturing facility that the U.S. government's Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority helped establish in 2012, which was expanded in 2017. Beyond the government, there's potential for Emergent to benefit from through developing drugs and vaccines with non-government organizations (NGOs) or other drugmakers that need manufacturing capabilities.