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Stocks: Bird Flu
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Pay attention to the last paragraph.....
Novavax Shares Surge on Bird Flu Fears
Tuesday October 25, 4:24 pm ET
Novavax Shares Surge on Second Straight Day After Confirmed Cases of Bird Flu Outside Asia
NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of biotech company Novavax Inc. surged for the second consecutive day Tuesday, following a weekend where the avian flu virus H5N1 was identified in birds in Turkey, Romania and Russia and a dead parrot imported to Britain from South America was found to have been carrying the virus.
Novavax shares jumped $1.38, or 33 percent, to close at $5.53 on the Nasdaq, after reaching a new 52-week high of $5.88, at nearly 12 times their average volume. Shares closed up 10 percent on Monday, and started surging in August from a 52-week low of 70 cents, when the company presented animal data showing their vaccine could protect animals against avian flu.
Share prices edged slightly in after-market activity, down 7 cents to $5.46.
The company also announced in September that it would collaborate with Somerset, N.J.-based Wave Biotech to try to develop a way to produce its Virus-Like Particle avian flu vaccine on a commercial scale. The VLP imitates a virus to elicit an immune response, but cannot infect cells because it lacks the genetic material of a virus, unlike standard vaccines.
In an investor note on Friday, RBC Capital Markets analyst Ken Trbovich upgraded Novavax to "Sector Perform" from "Underperform" and raised his target price to $3 from $1, after the company received a recent $12.5 million license and supply agreement from Esprit Pharma for the Estrasorb topical estrogen therapy.
However, the analyst also noted that fears of avian flu could focus attention on the VLP technology, which could possibly create quick versions of vaccines for mutated flu strains.
As evidenced in last year's flu vaccine shortages in the United States, vaccine-making suffers from the drawback of long ramp-up times, where the product must be incubated over months at a time using century-old chicken egg-based technology.
"If the company can be in human testing of the vaccine in early 2006, they will likely attract additional attention from the U.S. government or prospective partners," Trbovich told investors. "A partnership or significant U.S. government grant would additionally bolster our confidence in the program and NVAX's cash reserves. We believe that the media and political fervor surrounding avian flu will likely increase as we move farther into traditional flu season."
Novavax Shares Surge on Bird Flu Fears
Tuesday October 25, 4:24 pm ET
Novavax Shares Surge on Second Straight Day After Confirmed Cases of Bird Flu Outside Asia
NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of biotech company Novavax Inc. surged for the second consecutive day Tuesday, following a weekend where the avian flu virus H5N1 was identified in birds in Turkey, Romania and Russia and a dead parrot imported to Britain from South America was found to have been carrying the virus.
Novavax shares jumped $1.38, or 33 percent, to close at $5.53 on the Nasdaq, after reaching a new 52-week high of $5.88, at nearly 12 times their average volume. Shares closed up 10 percent on Monday, and started surging in August from a 52-week low of 70 cents, when the company presented animal data showing their vaccine could protect animals against avian flu.
Share prices edged slightly in after-market activity, down 7 cents to $5.46.
The company also announced in September that it would collaborate with Somerset, N.J.-based Wave Biotech to try to develop a way to produce its Virus-Like Particle avian flu vaccine on a commercial scale. The VLP imitates a virus to elicit an immune response, but cannot infect cells because it lacks the genetic material of a virus, unlike standard vaccines.
In an investor note on Friday, RBC Capital Markets analyst Ken Trbovich upgraded Novavax to "Sector Perform" from "Underperform" and raised his target price to $3 from $1, after the company received a recent $12.5 million license and supply agreement from Esprit Pharma for the Estrasorb topical estrogen therapy.
However, the analyst also noted that fears of avian flu could focus attention on the VLP technology, which could possibly create quick versions of vaccines for mutated flu strains.
As evidenced in last year's flu vaccine shortages in the United States, vaccine-making suffers from the drawback of long ramp-up times, where the product must be incubated over months at a time using century-old chicken egg-based technology.
"If the company can be in human testing of the vaccine in early 2006, they will likely attract additional attention from the U.S. government or prospective partners," Trbovich told investors. "A partnership or significant U.S. government grant would additionally bolster our confidence in the program and NVAX's cash reserves. We believe that the media and political fervor surrounding avian flu will likely increase as we move farther into traditional flu season."
coldblue1955
New member
looks like the world will end soon.
