Platinum’s Ogden backs COVID-19 vaccine creators
Platinum International Health Care manager Bianca Ogden is well placed to benefit from the COVID-19 vaccine trials as her fund holds both leading players.
It was announced this week that US drug firm Moderna had created a vaccine with 94% effectiveness while Pfizer had a successful trial, in partnership with German biotech firm BioNTech, with 90% effectiveness earlier this month.
Ogden held 2.1% in BioNTech, the fund participated in its pre-IPO back in mid-2019, as well as smaller amounts in Moderna and a third biotech firm called Curevac.
Speaking to Money Management, she said: “We have done work on mRNA as a therapeutic and vaccine for a couple of years and had a belief that both Moderna and BioNTech had the right expertise to progress their programs. BioNTech, in particular, also develops other drug modalities to comprehensively treat cancer.
“We visited both companies, met with their teams and felt this technology has legs and could have wide-ranging consequences for the vaccine industry as well as in therapeutics. Both companies were well funded and had partners to share the load.”
She said the trial results of 90% for Pfizer & BioNTech and 94% for Moderna were “great to see” but she would wait to see how durable was the response.
“It is great to see these mRNA vaccines emerging rapidly and in the end the world will need various vaccines to satisfy demand,” Ogden said.
The Platinum International Health Care fund returned 24.9% over one year to 31 October, 2020, according to FE Analytics, versus average returns by the specialist sector within the Australian Core Strategies universe of 11.2%.
AUTHOR
Laura Dew
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