For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – May 23, 2022 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Emergent BioSolutions
EBS
, Chimerix
CMRX
and SIGA Technologies
SIGA
.
Here are highlights from Friday’s Analyst Blog:
Monkeypox Fears Driving Smallpox Antiviral Makers
Shares of companies like
Emergent BioSolutions
and
SIGA Technologies
, which cater to the biodefense market and make medicines/vaccines to treat smallpox, were up on Thursday as fears of a monkeypox outbreak in Europe increased and one case was reported in the United States. Monkeypox is a rare but potentially serious viral illness with fever-like symptoms and rashes on the face and body.
Emergent BioSolutions stock was up almost 12% while SIGA Technologies rose 17.1% on Thursday.
The monkeypox virus belongs to the same family of viruses that causes smallpox. Symptoms of monkeypox are similar to smallpox though less severe. In the United States, the case of monkeypox was confirmed in a man who had recently traveled to Canada. Per the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the current monkeypox case does not pose a public health risk. Small monkeypox outbreaks have been reported in some European countries like the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, though this disease hardly shows up in countries outside Africa.
Emergent makes ACAM2000, a vaccine for smallpox that could be used to treat monkeypox. Moreover, last week, Emergent announced a deal with
Chimerix
to acquire exclusive worldwide rights to CMRX’s smallpox oral antiviral product, Tembexa. The FDA approved Chimerix’s Tembexa in June 2021. The transaction is expected to be closed as early as the second quarter of 2022.
Increase demand for ACAM2000 vaccine and potentially Tembexa may help Emergent make profits if the monkeypox infection spreads further.
SIGA Technologies makes an oral antiviral drug called Tpoxx ((tecovirimat), which is approved in the United States, Canada and Europe for the treatment of smallpox. Oral Tpoxx is also approved in Europe for treating monkeypox. On Thursday, the FDA approved an intravenous (IV) formulation of Tpoxx that will help SIGA Technologies to cater to a broader patient population.
Shares of Emergent BioSolutions have declined 27.1% in the year so far while Siga Technologies stock is up 15%. The
industry
has witnessed a 24.9% decrease in the said time frame as given in the chart below.
Zacks Rank
Currently, Emergent BioSolutions has a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) while SIGA Technologies has a Zacks Rank of 4 (Sell).
You can see
the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here
.
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Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss
.
This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit
https://www.zacks.com/performance
for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.
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