In China’s Covid-19 vaccine race, five stocks are on analysts’ watch list as clinical trials end, production anticipated
- CanSino Biologics, Chongqing Zhifei and Shenzhen Kangtai are preparing to commercialise their Covid-19 vaccine candidates, pending trial results
- Makers of ultra-low temperature freezers also stand to gain from demand for storage and transportation of vaccine doses
While major global players like Pfizer, BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca are grabbing the limelight with their novel mRNA shots, those developed by mainland Chinese rivals are in high demand in emerging markets despite being behind the curve in reaching the mass-production stage.
“The Covid-19 pandemic will not be over in one year, we still need more variety of vaccines and in different formats next year or even in 2022,” said Zhao Bing, chief health care analyst at China Renaissance. “I don’t see it as a winner-takes-all scenario. It will take time to meet the needs of different markets due to affordability and logistics issues.”
The three vaccine developers have risen by 121 to 197 per cent this year, more than double the increase in the MSCI China Healthcare Index, according to Bloomberg data. The index had 81 members with a combined market cap of HK$1.1 trillion (US$148 billion) as of November 30.