Looks like #EBS for Emergent could be a play here.
They’re one of two existing smallpox vaccine makers: Emergent and Bavarian Nordic (OTC: BVNRY — no options).
- Emergent’s vaccine is called ACAM2000.
- Bavarian Nordic’s vaccine is called JYNNEOS. On May 18 the US government exercised purchase options for JYNNEOS: Link But it’s for 113 million orders and for 2023 and 2024…
There is a third company: Wyeth. Wyeth used to produce Dryvax but stopped in 1980 after the world health emergency for smallpox was declared over. Pfizer acquired Wyeth in 2009.
According to the FDA as related to ACAM2000 vs Dryvax:
Both vaccines are derived from the New York City Board of Health strain of vaccinia, but Dryvax was grown on the skin of calves and then essentially freeze-dried for storage. It was licensed by FDA in 1931 but is no longer manufactured. ACAM2000, a “second generation” smallpox vaccine, is derived from a clone of Dryvax, purified, and produced using modern cell culture technology.
EBS is up 11% today on monkeypox news but has lots of room to bounce up.
Their stock price collapse in November 2021 was due to losing a COVID vaccine contract with the government. Perhaps if new contracts get announced to produce smallpox vaccines, this could pump EBS back to the 40 to 50 range. For now, sentiment could be enough to give it some upward movement.
I added EBS 06/17 35c and 40c to my watchlist.
I could see PFE or even MRNA being a play only if they announced that they were working on a modern version of a smallpox/monkeypox vaccine, but EBS already has one so a bet on PFE/MRNA would be a lot more speculative. Perhaps @wolfwoodx could weigh in on the likelihood?