Shares of Siga Technologies and other companies making vaccines and anti-viral products tied to monkeypox are in focus after the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
On Monday, Siga¡¯s shares gained as much as 27% on elevated volume, its sharpest intraday rally since May, while Chimerix and Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding also rose. Retail attention has turned back to Siga, with the firm drawing interest on social media platform Stocktwits over the weekend and becoming among the top-traded names Monday on Fidelity¡¯s platform.
It has been a tumultuous few months for the shares of firms tied to the outbreak, as retail investors have piled in and rushed out of the group on uncertainty about the future of vaccines or therapies that could be needed to fight the spread. Siga, as well as Chimerix and Emergent BioSolutions, are ¡°key beneficiaries¡± of the WHO declaration on the therapeutics side, Cowen analyst Boris Peaker wrote in a note.
Siga and Chimerix did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and Emergent did not provide any additional commentary.
Chimerix, which announced in May that it would sell its smallpox drug called Tembexa to Emergent, soared by as much as 24% on Monday. Emergent, which also has a smallpox vaccine called ACAM2000 that can be used against monkeypox in some cases, rose as much as 7.4%.
Tonix Pharmaceuticals, which has a vaccine in development for smallpox and monkeypox, also climbed as much as 25% on Monday.
Meanwhile, Siga¡¯s share price has roughly doubled this year despite the broader market uncertainty. The firm makes a treatment called tecovirimat, also known as Tpoxx, which is approved for smallpox in the U.S., and monkeypox and other viruses in the EU and U.K.
Monkeypox is considered a cousin of the smallpox virus.
On the vaccine side, Cowen¡¯s Beaker named Bavarian Nordic, which makes Jynneos, a vaccine that¡¯s approved for monkeypox, among key beneficiaries of WHO¡¯s declaration. The firm¡¯s American Depositary Receipts jumped as much as 9.5% in U.S. trading.
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