Goldman Names Health Stocks With Promising Covid-19 Efforts

(Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs analysts have created a basket of more than 20 health-care companies developing treatments, vaccines and tests for the coronavirus pandemic.

The list “is not all-encompassing,” but the analysts say it “provides a wide-enough, representative, and global sample of names with newsflow likely over the next 12 months.” Goldman expects the basket will continue to command a “goodwill” premium while hedging against individual stock volatility.

At the top of Goldman’s list is Gilead Sciences Inc. and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc., which are expected to report clinical results from experimental Covid-19 treatments this month. Moderna Inc. and Johnson & Johnson have the most promising vaccines, analysts said.

The other companies are Abbott Laboratories, Adaptive Biotechnologies Corp., Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc., Becton Dickinson and Co., BioNTech SE, CSL Ltd., Danaher Corp., Fujifilm Holdings Corp., Grifols SA, Incyte Corp., Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Laboratory Corp. of America, Novartis AG, Pfizer Inc., Quest Diagnostics Inc., Roche Holding AG, Sanofi, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Vir Biotechnology Inc. and Wuxi Biologics Cayman Inc.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expediting development and review of new products to fight Covid-19, while President Donald Trump has extolled the benefits of unapproved drugs at press conferences. “Several names on this list could continue to see sentiment tailwinds from a combination of potentially supportive government commentary and/or easing regulatory hurdles,” analysts led by Asad Haider wrote in a note.

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