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These 5 drug developers have jumped this week on hopes they can provide a coronavirus treatment

Feb 28, 2020, 01:53 IST

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  • Wall Street is scrambling to have a stake in the company that cures coronavirus - and it has drug makers surging.
  • That's as the wider market marches towards its worst weekly performance since the financial crisis.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

As equity indices head toward their worst week of losses since the financial crisis, investors have predictably begun placing bets on which company can produce a cure for the COVID-19 coronavirus at the root of the sell-off.

It's becoming a crowded field.

In private markets, billionaire Jim Simons is betting millions on Codagenix, a small biotechnology company working on a coronavirus vaccine.

Meanwhile, publicly listed company Novavax surged as much as 27.9% Thursday as the company began animal testing for a potential coronavirus vaccine. Inovio, a biotech firm that says it will begin a clinical trial for its vaccine this summer, jumped as much as 25.3%. Moderna climbed 23.5%, on similar promises, before reversing those gains by afternoon trading.

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Vaxart, a little-known pharmaceutical company that also says it's searching for a possible vaccine, jumped as much as 106.1% Thursday.

Gilead Pharmaceuticals already sells a drug, remdesivir, that a World Health Organization official said Monday may be able to treat some symptoms of coronavirus, though the drug was not originally made for that purpose. Investors bid that stock up as high as 5.6% Thursday. That's after it closed Wednesday up 7% against end of trading Friday, the last day of trading before the WHO comments.

Here are five public companies that Wall Street has bid up after they said they would pursue a vaccine, and how the shares performed Thursday.

1. Novavax

Ticker: NVAX

Thursday stock gains: As much as 27.9%

How it's trading now: Up 19.6%

Get more: The company announced Wednesday it began animal testing for a potential coronavirus vaccine. Human testing will begin by the end of spring 2020, the company said.

2. Inovio

Ticker: INO

Thursday stock gains: As much as 25.3%

How it's trading now: Up 9.3%

Get more: Fox Business reported on February 13 that Inovio has a vaccine for the COVID-19 coronavirus, and will begin clinical trials this summer at the earliest.

4. Vaxart

Ticker: VXRT

Thursday stock gains: As much as 106.1%

How it's trading now: Up 53.3.7%

Get more: Vaxart said at the start of the month that it was starting a program to make a vaccine for COVID-19 coronavirus.

3. Moderna

Ticker: MRNA

Thursday stock gains: As much as 23.5%

How it's trading now: Down 10.8%

Get more: Moderna announced Monday that it had shipped the first coronvirus vaccine for human testing.

5. Gilead

Ticker: GILD

Thursday stock gains: As much as 5.6%

How it's trading now: Down 2.5%

Get more: The World Health Organization said that remdesivir could treat some symptoms of COVID-19 coronavirus. The company will conduct two clinical trials of the drug starting in March, it said in a Wednesday statement.

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