4 Top Biotech Stocks To Know About This Week
With COVID-19 resurging, health care stocks appear to be on investors‘ radars once again. For the most part, this part of the stock market today is home to many companies fighting the pandemic now. This would be the case whether it is vaccine companies on the frontlines or day-to-day health care providers. To put things into perspective, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provided a critical update on U.S. pandemic conditions earlier this week. According to Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the seven-day moving average for U.S. COVID cases hit 72,790 last Friday. With these exceeding peak figures from last summer, investors could be eyeing health care stocks now.
Notably, there is also no shortage of exciting developments in the industry for investors to consider. Take COVID vaccine company AstraZeneca (NASDAQ: AZN) for example. Late last month, the company provided a positive update on the effectiveness of its vaccine candidate against the Beta and Delta Variants of Concern (VoCs). According to AstraZeneca, one dose of its vaccine is highly effective against severe disease or hospitalization caused by said VoCs. Meanwhile, Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ: WBA) continues to see a surge in COVID-19 vaccinations over the past few weeks. This would highlight both the rising urgency among the general public and the role of general health care companies now. After considering these factors, I could see health care stocks continue to take center stage in the stock market now. Here are four making headlines now.
Best Health Care Stocks To Watch This Week
- Moderna Inc. (NASDAQ: MRNA)
- CVS Health Corporation (NYSE: CVS)
- Beyondspring Inc. (NASDAQ: BYSI)
- Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE)
Moderna Inc.
Moderna is a pharmaceutical and biotechnology company that is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company focuses on its diverse clinical portfolio of vaccines and therapeutics across six modalities. It also boasts a broad intellectual property portfolio in areas including mRNA and lipid nanoparticle formulation and an integrated manufacturing plant that allows for both clinical and commercial production at scale. MRNA stock closed Wednesday’s trading session up over 8% at $419.05 a share. Today, the company announced an exciting piece of news.
Diving in, it announced that it has received FDA Fast Track designation for its respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine, mRNA-1345. mRNA-1345 is an investigational single-dose mRNA vaccine against RSV in adults older than 60 years of age. RSV is a common respiratory virus that generally causes cold-like symptoms. In the U.S. and areas with similar climates, RSV infections occur primarily during fall, winter, and spring. Fast Track is designated to facilitate the development and expedite the review of therapies and vaccines for serious conditions and that fill an unmet medical need. Given the excitement surrounding Moderna, will you consider adding MRNA stock to your watchlist?
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CVS Health Corporation
CVS Health is a leading health solutions company. It reaches a wide number of patients and has improved the health of communities across the U.S. through its local presence, digital channels, and its nearly 300,000 dedicated colleagues. This includes over 40,000 physicians, pharmacists, and nurses. Furthermore, CVS Pharmacy is a retail pharmacy corporation that is one of the largest pharmacy chains in the U.S. The company also has a health insurance company, Aetna, that sells traditional and consumer-directed health care insurance and related services. CVS stock finished Wednesday’s trading day at $81.55 apiece.
On Wednesday, the company announced strong second-quarter financials. Firstly, it posted total revenue of $72.6 billion, up by 11.1% compared to a year ago. Secondly, CVS Health posted a GAAP diluted earnings per share of $2.10 for the quarter. The company says that this quarter was highlighted by broad sales and earnings performance, as well as sequential operating margin improvement. CVS Health also says that it continues to play a critical role in helping Americans prevail against the pandemic and continues to demonstrate the effectiveness of its business model. Lastly, the company also raised its full-year guidance for 2021 and expects a top-line GAAP diluted earnings per share of $6.45. All things considered, will you watch CVS stock?
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BeyondSpring Inc.
Following that, we will be taking a look at BeyondSpring. In brief, it is a global biopharmaceutical company that primarily focuses on developing cancer therapies. Primarily, the company’s flagship asset now is its plinabulin drug. According to BeyondSpring, plinabulin is currently filed for approval and has received Priority Review in the U.S. and China for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced neutropenia (CIN). Simply put, CIN is the weakening of the immune system as a result of chemical-based cancer treatments.
More importantly, BYSI stock seems to be making waves on the stock market today. This appears to be the case as the company’s shares are up by over 130% at today’s opening bell. As a result, BYSI stock now trades at $26.58 a share and closed Wednesday up an impressive 176% in price per share.
Namely, these massive gains would be thanks to BeyondSpring’s latest update on plinabulin. Diving right into it, top-line results from the company’s DUBLIN-3 trial show that plinabulin could serve as a treatment for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC). According to BeyondSpring, when used in combination with docetaxel in the study, there was a statistically significant improvement in the overall survival of NSCLC patients. Moving forward, the company is now planning to seek approval from both the U.S. FDA and China’s National Medical Products Administration. Given all of this, would you consider BYSI stock a top watch now?
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Pfizer Inc.
Next on this list, we have Pfizer, a multinational pharmaceutical corporation with headquarters in New York City. The company has a wide portfolio of drugs and vaccines for many medical fields. Namely, the company develops treatments for the immunology, oncology, and cardiology fields among others. The company boasts over 25,000 clinical researchers pursuing new treatments, with pharmaceutical development and innovation at its focus. Shares of PFE stock closed Wednesday’s trading session at $45.19 a share.
Today, the company announced positive top-line results for its Phase 2B/3 ALLEGRO trial. The trial evaluates the oral once-daily ritlecitinib in patients with alopecia areata, an autoimmune disease driven by an immune attack on the hair follicles that causes hair loss on the scalp and can also affect the face and body. Impressively, the trial achieved its primary efficacy endpoint, improving scalp hair regrowth. On top of that, it had an impressive second quarter, with revenues of $19 billion and diluted earnings per share of $0.98. With that in mind, will you consider PFE stock a top health care stock to watch?
