Which companies are researching a COVID-19 vaccine?

Which companies are researching a COVID-19 vaccine?

Equities 2 minutes to read
Peter Garnry

Chief Investment Strategist

Summary:  A vaccine against COVID-19 is critical for society and to get the economy back on track. We've looked at the WHO's official list of 76 vaccine candidates being tested, found the companies involved with developing them and detailed those you can trade via Saxo's trading platform. The potential is big for the company that develops the right vaccine, but it also comes with very high risk.


Health experts agree that a vaccine is key to fighting the COVID-19 global pandemic and restoring life and the economy to what it was. The fastest vaccine ever developed in human history took four years, but the community of universities and biotechnology companies feel confident that through global collaboration a COVID-19 vaccine can be ready in 18 months. The race is on. The WHO published a list of 76 vaccine candidates on 20 April and this is now the official list. We have no knowledge of which company will win the race to find a vaccine against COVID-19. But we have found all the companies with Saxo ticker codes, so that it’s easier for you to identify the companies that can offer you exposure to this potential upside. It's important to recognise that investing in this opportunity comes with very high risk as some of the companies are illiquid and have small market values. But in general the risks of developing a vaccine are high, as you are competing against many other companies and universities. More importantly a vaccine is not just a vaccine as each comes with different coverage ratio of the various mutations but also with different risk profiles for the various age cohorts.

Companies on the WHO vaccine list, which you can trade via SaxoTraderGO, ordered by market cap.

Saxo tickerCompanyReturn YTD,
pct. (LCY)
Mkt. cap
(USD mn.)
PFE:xnysPfizer Inc0.1215332
MRNA:xnasModerna Inc144.717643
600196:xsscShanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical28.511685
BNTX:xnasBioNTech SE42.610960
APDN:xnasTakara Bio Inc23.02860
4563:xtksAnGes Inc154.01881
INO:xnasInovio Pharmaceuticals Inc205.51471
NVAX:xnasNovavax Inc333.2999
ARCT:xnasArcturus Therapeutics Holdings272.2804
DVAX:xnasDynavax Technologies Corp-29.2355
VXRT:xnasVaxart Inc627.5181
IMV:xtseIMV Inc-25.5110
IBIO:xaseiBio Inc323.7107
ALT:xnasAltimmune Inc61.947
HTBX:xnasHeat Biologics Inc15.145
IPA:xtsxImmunoPrecise Antibodies Ltd32.838
EXPRS2:xomeExpres2ion Biotech Holding AB380.730

For more coronavirus trading inspiration, check the coronavirus section in SaxoTraderGO.

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