Crisis breeds ingenuity. History is loaded with examples of extreme events – wars, natural disasters, terrorism – causing great challenges for all of humanity.
And it had been so long since the world saw a biological pandemic, we were caught unprepared. Here was how I opened my recent special report "Vaccine Miracles" for Zacks Ultimate members...
In January of 2020, as the novel coronavirus in China first started to make headlines and had exceeded 2003’s 5,500 peak number of cases for SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), I started diving into the research. As a result, I produced an article, a podcast, and a video.
My video was titled "Coronavirus: How Fast to 100,000 Infected?" and I was asking that question at a time when there were only five or six reported cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. I checked YouTube a year later, and my video had only 8,800 views.
But here's what's really shocking. In my research, I uncovered a video from 2010 that was precisely the scientific warning to which the world needed to pay attention. It’s seven minutes long and a year ago, it had only 7,300 views.
SARS, Ebola, and Zika Were Just the Warm-Up Acts
That’s right – this vital scientific warning from a decade ago was almost completely ignored. The video is based on the results of a 2008-2009 commissioned study by scientists, doctors, public health officials, and animal health experts from around the globe addressing the need for massive coordinated tracking and information sharing about zoonotic diseases.
Zoonotic diseases are those that originate from animals. Of the hundreds that exist, at least six are considered "coronaviruses," including SARS, named for the trademark "crowned" spike on their surface.
Dr. Marguerite Pappaioanou, co-chair of the study, said "By the time it's recognized in people, it's been circulating for some period of time which leads to a huge need for response."
But world leaders didn't listen to the scientific warning in 2010. So we were not prepared with globally coordinated surveillance and response.
The Threat Was Real – and a Call to Arms
You saw how fast SARS-CoV-2 could spread around the globe and within communities. The most physically vulnerable, senior citizens and those with preexisting health conditions, were the most common victims. But millions of people also saw it impact someone they knew who was young and healthy.
Against this new threat, and with the accumulated knowledge of 15 years battling viral infections including swine flu, bird flu, Ebola, and Zika, the scientific community circled the wagons and prepared for war.
Their first weapon was identification of the invader. And that meant superior genomics sequencing to pinpoint the precise genetic structure of the virus.
Once this was achieved in February of 2020, the enemy's data ID spread like wildfire across medical journals, emergency conferences and the internet.
The speed of response from scientists once the pandemic started to unfold was a wonder to behold, from testing kits to vaccine development. Never did any expert believe it was possible before 2020 to sequence a virus genome, develop and test an effective and safe vaccine, and bring it to market in just 9 months.
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Even the Scientists Were Amazed
Just a few weeks ago, I attended a live online presentation titled "Vaccine Revolution: Will the COVID-19 race change infectious disease R&D forever?" Some of the world's top scientists and MDs leading the vaccine initiatives were watching and it was a mind-blowing event with 5 expert speakers and a jam-packed slide show.
Describing the speed of vaccine R&D from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA), Dr. Melanie Saville, Director of Vaccine R&D for CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations), said the new Moderna messenger-RNA vaccine broke all imaginable records by going from genomic sequencing to a vaccine ready for clinical trials in just 63 days.
CEPI was instrumental in this mission response by providing funding to vaccine companies in January of 2020. And several national governments also deserve credit for their sizable funding efforts, as we saw in the U.S. through the NIH and BARDA (Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority) as directed by Operation Warp Speed (OWS).
Science Innovation at Warp Speed
One of the most fascinating miracles of this lightning war has been the success of messenger-RNA technology. While small labs were tinkering with mRNA for a decade before the crisis, they were vaulted to center-stage last year.
Now you can achieve significant degrees of immunity from the novel coronavirus without any live virus coming anywhere near you because the revolutionary vaccines from Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and Moderna use an ancient secret weapon from Mother Nature herself.
In fact, with a little help from this secret weapon – which I call nature’s premier "instant messaging" service – your body’s cells can trigger your immune system to fight SARS-CoV-2 just by wearing some "accessories" that look like COVID-19 but don’t actually contain any virus.
That’s right. The next-generation vaccines don’t bring the actual virus anywhere near you. They use messenger RNA technology -- aka, nature’s oldest instruction manual -- to show your cells how to make COVID-19’s signature look, the spike protein...
Those little spike proteins on the surface of SARS-CoV-2 are not the virus. They are the "keys" used by the virus to communicate with your cells and gain entry through sophisticated chemical receptor recognition and cell membrane fusion processes.
All the mRNA vaccines have to do is teach your cells to make those little spike proteins – which, again, are not the virus but merely replicas of the keys COVID-19 would use – and then your immune system is instantly alerted because it senses invaders.
COVID-19 Meets the Newest Apollo Program
Something else wonderful has come from this crisis—besides the vaccines and more kids growing up interested in science (one of my favorite impacts).
I believe the best part about this miracle of medicine is what it will unleash going forward. First, imagine that without the pandemic, the "warp speed" funding and research would not have been created to give birth to mRNA vaccines.
Now consider what else mRNA technology platforms can do. One company, whose sales just vaulted 15,000% – by the most conservative estimates, from 2019's $100 million to this year's projected $15+ billion – is also developing vaccines for cancer.
Whether or not they succeed with cancer vaccines, one thing is amazingly clear: they now have the cash flow to fund the most aggressive moonshots imaginable for the mRNA platform.
To learn more about this company and a handful of others who are turbocharging their R&D at warp speed, check out the latest edition of my Special Report The Century of Biology.
The Power of Biotechnology Will Continue to Amaze
One year ago, beyond the shock of how unprepared the world was to deal with a potential pandemic that thousands of scientists, doctors, and policy makers knew was highly-probable, I was left with a single overarching conclusion: zoonotic diseases, including coronaviruses that can spread like wildfire, would be with us forever.
Why forever? Because as the globe's human population grows, so do the populations of animals and our interactions with them, from livestock, poultry, and seafood to exotic species like reptiles, primates, and bats that humans will always love to collect and trade.
It took a real zoonotic pandemic, with devastating consequences for millions of human families and their economic livelihoods, to make political leaders around the world wake up and see the dangers of not listening to the science. But we now have the data, systems, structures and tools to actually prevent the next outbreak.
And we have a Biotechnology industry that is ready for anything! And I personally love that, as both a science fanatic and a healthcare investor.
Today’s Most Promising Biotech Opportunities
There are a handful of stocks I believe are positioned for particularly strong performance in this booming sector – and I just released the 3rd edition of my Special Report called The Century of Biology: 7 Biotech Stocks to Buy Now to help you take advantage of them. Get my special report and let's invest in the future of medicine together.
Previous editions of this report have pointed investors to some big winners. For example, the 2nd edition (published in January 2020) highlighted Invitae (NYSE:NVTA) Corp., which surged +257.6% in 11 months, Editas Medicine (NASDAQ:EDIT), which shot up +204.7% in 12 months and Intellia Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NTLA), which exploded +477.1% in 12 months.¹
The recommendations in this 3rd edition could be just as lucrative for investors who get in on the action.
With warp speed innovation sparked by the pandemic, this is an exciting time to invest in Biotech. And The Century of Biology report reveals the must-have stocks I believe all investors are going to want to own in this space. I encourage you to check them out right away. But don’t delay. The deadline to download The Century of Biology is midnight Sunday, March 28.
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Good Investing,
Kevin Cook
Kevin Cook, Senior Stock Strategist at Zacks, is a leading expert in biotech and medical stocks. He provides commentary and recommendations for Zacks' investment portfolio, Healthcare Innovators.
¹ The results listed above are not (or may not be) representative of the performance of all selections made by Zacks Investment Research's newsletter editors and may represent the partial close of a position.
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