Firms Look to Prevent Swine Flu Pandemic, Turn a Profit

RUSSELL GOLDMAN
ABC News
Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Face-masks and hand-sanitizer are flying off the shelves and pharmaceutical stocks are skyrocketing on fears that a swine flu outbreak could go global.

Companies gearing up for swine flu, including Roche, Gilead Sciences and GlaxoSmithKline, the manufacturers of the leading antiviral flu medications, are best positioned to see a boost in profits if the disease escalates to epidemic proportions, analysts said.

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Tamiflu, which comes in pills, was developed by Gilead and manufactured by Roche. Gilead continues to collect royalties from Roche’s sales of the drug. Both companies’ share prices spiked soon after the U.S. government allowed for its stockpiles of the drug to be made publicly available.

Gilead stock surged to $47.53 at the end of the day Monday, up 3.78 percent. Roche rose to $31.72, up 4.34 percent.

Full story here.

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