Avian Flu Vaccine Maker

In the previous article we've dicussed the first group of stocks that will benefit in case of the bird flu outbreak - the Tamiflu makers. Now let's shifts out attention from to another player - the H5N1 vaccine maker.

Vaccine Winner and Developer
Lacking enough vaccine in stock to combat against H5N1, the deadly bird flu virus now threatening human lifes, U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Service the HHS was handing out huge contracts for biotech firms to produce avian vaccine to inoculate Americans against the deadly disease. The contract winners are:

• Chiron(CHIR): awarded $62.5 million to produce 20 million vaccines for bird flu. The biopharmaceutical company based in Emeryville, CA has been bought by Swiss drug giant Novartis(NVS), so pay attention to Novartis which has seen its stock price rise from $48 a share to $54 a share today.
• Sanofi-Aventis (SNY): the European drug maker was awared a $100 million contract to produce avian flu vaccine. With strong earning result today, the stock should be ready for plenty of upside as it is still trading at 6 month low of $40.7 a share.

There are also other companys who has bird flu vaccine under development to supply the current shortage of H5N1 vaccine:

• MedImmune(MEDI): Maryland based vaccine maker is also develolping vaccines against H5N1. The stock has rise from $26 per share in August to its 52 weeks high of $36 per share.
• GlaxoSmithKline(GSK): the Brentford, UK based vaccine maker is also developing its own version of H5N1 vaccine. The stock has just reached 52 weeks high recently around $53 per share.
• Novavax (NVAX): the Malvern, PA based company has proved its vaccine could protect animals against avian flu. After announcing more stock offering to fund more clinical development, the company is clearly in the Avian Flu vaccine rase. The stock is a risk play as it has sky-rocketted 400% in three month from merely a dollar per share to $3.9 per share today.