The Race For A COVID-19 Vaccine - Part 2
Ten days ago, I wrote a post titled,
Gilead Sciences, Inc., a research-based biopharmaceutical company, discovers, develops, and commercializes medicines in the areas of unmet medical needs in the United States, Europe, and internationally. Gilead continues to work with Wuhan Institute of Virology as it is believed Gilead's Remdesivir, an antiviral therapy used to treat infectious diseases including Ebola and SARS has the ability to block the activity of a protein that helps coronaviruses make copies of themselves. At the time, the stock was trading at $71.
Today the stock is trading at $80.
I personally was already in the trade a month ago, based on bullish unusual options activity. I saw more bullish options activity earlier this week and have since added to my positions.
I also talked about, Co-Diagnostics, Inc., a molecular diagnostics company, intends to manufacture and sell reagents used for diagnostic tests that function via the detection and/or analysis of nucleic acid molecules. It also intends to sell diagnostic equipment from other manufacturers as self-contained lab systems. This stock was $1 at the beginning of the year and was at $6 when I included the company in the post.
Today the stock is trading at $13, but did go as high as $22.
Today, I want to introduce to you another company that has the potential to go a lot higher in price. OPKO Health, Inc., a healthcare company, engages in the diagnostics and pharmaceuticals business in the United States, Ireland, Chile, Spain, Israel, Mexico, and internationally. The company's Diagnostics segment operates BioReference Laboratories, a clinical laboratory that offers laboratory testing services.
BioReference Laboratories, Inc., an OPKO Health company (NASDAQ: OPK), today announced it will offer a test for the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), a contagious virus that causes respiratory infection and has shown evidence of human-to-human transmission. BioReference is expecting to receive specimens for testing, and begin to provide testing next week. With an extensive network of patient service centers and a national logistic network, BioReference will provide expanded access to a COVID-19 testing across the United States.
"COVID-19 testing is imperative in aiding front-line healthcare professionals and public health authorities to identify infected patients more quickly, limit the spread of infection and promote earlier diagnosis and treatment," said Jon R. Cohen, M.D., Executive Chairman of BioReference. "We want to specifically recognize how engaged and responsive HHS, the CDC and the FDA have been in helping us navigate quickly through the scientific and regulatory issues necessary to make testing available as soon as possible to the U.S. population."
BioReference has collaborated with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization and other public health agencies to help identify and develop diagnostic tests for emerging infectious diseases.
NOTE: full disclosure I did picked up 200 shares Friday morning.
Why is this big. On Friday, President Trump signed a $8 billion emergency funding to combat the coronavirus outbreak. The fund includes, funding for developing treatments, funding for the government to purchase drugs from manufacturers and funding for public health measures to help prevent its spread.
I'm from NYC and most of my family is there. This morning, Gov. Cuomo declared a state of emergency for New York as the number of people infected with the virus jumped from 11 in NYC and to 76 across all of New York.
In order to prevent the spread of the virus, one must know who is infected or not. To know who is infected or not, one must be tested. Now multiple this issue across 50 states.
On Friday over 100 million shares were traded, on avg. volume of about 7 million shares per day. The other indication for my bullishness is the option chain, in particular on the call side.
Will OPKO Health, Inc., be another Co-Diagnostics, Inc, in terms of strike appreciation, I have know idea, but the risk was certainly worth taking.
This post is my personal opinion. I’m not a financial advisor, this isn't financial advice. Do your own research before making investment decisions.
Posted via Steemleo
