Shares of small diagnostics companies soar amid spread of monkeypox

Investors are snapping up shares of monkeypox test makers as the virus spreads / Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic

Shares of several small diagnostics companies surged on Monday, August 19, amid what is expected to be a “dramatic increase” in demand for their tests to detect the monkeypox virus, noted Seeking Alpha. The outbreak has spread beyond Africa, with the first case of the latest strain reported in Sweden last week. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that it is urgently scaling up support to affected countries to contain the spread of the virus.

Test maker stocks

Virax Biolabs, with a market capitalization of $7.14 million, rose almost 142% to $5.15 per share, its highest level in the last 12 months. However, the stock gave back some of the gains before the opening bell on Tuesday, August 20.

Applied DNA Sciences, with a market capitalization of $17.5 million, saw its shares gain nearly 129% to $1.79 per share on Monday before sliding in pre-market trading on Tuesday. Over the last 12 months, the stock is still down 93%.

Co-Diagnostics, with a market capitalization of $51 million, rose 26% to $1.72 per share on Monday. This marked the highest closing price for the stock in the last 12 months. In pre-market trading on Tuesday, it was down close to 6%.

Emergent BioSolutions, with a market capitalization of $634.9 million, gained 12.7% to $12.10 per share on Monday. The stock is up 143% over the last 12 months, propelled by 404% growth since the beginning of the year. Besides offering monkeypox tests, Emergent BioSolutions has a vaccine for the disease, which is currently awaiting regulatory approval, according to Seeking Alpha.

Context

Last week, the WHO declared the monkeypox outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern.” The virus was first discovered in the Congo in the 1970s and is considered endemic to Central and West Africa. This year, monkeypox cases have soared: according to WHO statistics, more than 2,100 laboratory-confirmed cases and 13 deaths have been reported in 12 African countries for the year to date, compared with 1,145 confirmed cases and seven deaths in 11 countries for the full-year 2023.

Last week, the virus spread beyond the continent, with the first case recorded in Sweden. On the same day, the WHO announced that it was urgently stepping up support to affected countries to contain the new outbreak.

Other news
Unlike diagnostics companies, monkeypox vaccine makers did not benefit as much from the latest developments. The stock of Bavarian Nordic, which makes the only approved vaccine for the disease in the U.S. and Europe, has been mostly flat. Shares of two other vaccine makers, Tonix Pharmaceuticals and GeoVax Labs, surged during Monday trading as much as 89% and 58%, respectively, but by the close they had returned to their previous closing levels.