There’s no doubt that the COVID-19 vaccines were developed at a blistering pace. Regardless of your ultimate feelings about these substances, they definitely came out quickly. And now, the developers behind these drugs are landing some honors from the Nobel Prize committee itself. As a result, BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX) and Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) both found themselves up today.
The gains kicked off after Katalin Kariko, a Hungarian biochemist, along with American immunologist Drew Weissman both landed the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with their work to develop an mRNA vaccine that took on COVID-19. The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet, the body that actually gives the award, declared their work “critical” in the development of said vaccines and, thus, worthy of the award.
Not every vaccine stock fared so well on this news, however. Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) was down fractionally in Monday afternoon’s trading, as was CureVac (NASDAQ:CVAC), despite the fact that it noted “progress” had been made in its lawsuit against BioNTech over that very same set of vaccines. However, given that the Regional Court Dusseldorf suspended proceedings while research into the patents themselves goes on, that doesn’t exactly look good. CureVac might still pull it out, but at this point, only time will tell.
Which Company is Best for Biotech?
The range of performance for biotech stocks goes far and wide. Right now, the best upside potential comes from Arcturus Therapies (NASDAQ:ARCT), the only Strong Buy on the list. With an average price target of $79, Arcturus offers investors a 209.8% upside potential. Meanwhile, Moderate Buy BioNTech comes with just 22.84% upside potential on its average price target of $136.67.
