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Emergent (EBS) Stock Up Year to Date on Coronavirus Vaccine Deals

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Shares of Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (EBS - Free Report) have risen sharply in the year so far. The stock has rallied 75%, outperforming the industry’s increase of 11.8%.


To address the global COVID-19 pandemic, Emergent inked several contract development and manufacturing (CDMO) deals to provide manufacturing services to various companies for helping them produce their respective experimental vaccine candidates against COVID-19.

In July, Emergent announced that it will collaborate with Mount Sinai Health System and ImmunoTek Bio Centers to develop and manufacture its COVID-19 hyperimmune globulin product, COVID-HIG. The program will include a post-exposure prophylaxis study on health care providers who stand at high risk of COVID-19 infection and other high-risk populations. The program will be backed by a funding of $34.6 million from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD).

Earlier this week, Emergent expanded its five-year agreement to provide CDMO services to pharma giant Johnson & Johnson (JNJ - Free Report) for supporting the large-scale drug substance manufacturing of the latter’s investigational COVID-19 vaccine candidate, Ad26.COV2-S. The deal is valued at around $480 million for the first two years.

Similarly, in June, Emergent announced that it will provide CDMO services to another pharma giant AstraZeneca (AZN - Free Report) for aiding the manufacturing process of the latter’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate AZD1222, which it is developing in partnership with the Oxford University. The agreement is valued at around $87 million.

Further, last month, Emergent was issued a task order under an existing contract with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) to deploy its CDMO capacities and expertise to support the U.S. government’s efforts to accelerate delivery of COVID-19 vaccines.

The company will provide molecule-to-market CDMO services and commit manufacturing capacity, valued at approximately $542.7 million, thereby paving the way for other companies to advance their COVID-19 programs.

In addition, Emergent reached a manufacturing agreement with small biotech Vaxart to produce the clinical material for the latter’s experimental oral vaccine candidate against COVID-19.

The company also has a similar collaboration contract with Novavax, Inc. (NVAX - Free Report) to assist the latter’s development of a vaccine candidate against COVID-19. The company will use its CDMO services to proceed with Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate, which is currently being evaluated in a phase I/II study.

Given the current scenario, if any of the above companies is able to successfully develop a vaccine for fighting the deadly COVID-19, it will lend a huge boost to Emergent as well and should drive the stock further in the days ahead.

Emergent Biosolutions Inc. Price

Zacks Rank

Emergent currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

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