Over the course of the past few months, many biotech companies have seen their stocks soar on the back of their efforts to create medicines or vaccines for the coronavirus pandemic. One such stock if Ibio Inc (NYSEAMERICAN:IBIO), which has gained as much as 490% so far as it pushes to bring a COVID 19 vaccine to the market.
What to Expect Now?
The secret sauce for iBio is its proprietary technology called Fast Pharming that allows it to produce vaccines in bulk and hence, gives it a competitive edge over its peers. That has attracted some institutional investors to the company but ultimately its weak balance sheet remains a matter of concern.
However, it could be worthwhile to take a closer look at Fast Pharming for anyone who is interested in iBio. The technology streamlines the production process considerably and leads to greater efficiency. Moreover, it also makes iBio an attractive proposition for those companies which are developing a COVID 19 vaccine but do not yet have the capability of scaling up production considerably.
At this point in time, the company is collaborating with Beijing CC Pharming, Infectious Disease Research Institute. That being said, it should be borne in mind that iBio has not managed to win a contract yet.
At this point, the company has one of the lowest market caps in the biotech sector, and on top of that its free cash flow, as well as margins, have been in the negative territory. Hence, the iBio stock has managed to do much better than its fundamentals suggest. However, the research and development investment has to be ramped up by iBio if it wishes to be a major player in the sector. Now that many companies are working on COVID 19 vaccines, iBio has emerged as a potential winner due to its Fast Pharming technology. It can churn our as much as 500 million doses of the vaccine a year and that is a significant figure. Investors could do well to keep an eye on the developments.
