AstraZeneca Still a Buy as Its Coronavirus Vaccine Looks at a Fast Track

AstraZeneca (LON:AZN) path in recent weeks has been comparatively quiet, and for a company we've cited in the past for its sheer stability, that's probably to be expected. We last saw the company bringing out new treatments to take on a disease that's an even heavier hitter than COVID-19—COPD—and now, there's fresh news out of AstraZeneca that could be a significant hit for the company and a likewise boost for your portfolio.

Tracking the Month for AstraZeneca

First, a bit of background. Since last month, looking at the company's stock chart has proven the resilience we cited as a reason to buy in just a month ago. On July 24, the stock closed at $55.80. Fast forward one month and the stock has gone through a few ups and downs to trade at $57.57 as of this writing.

That's up off its Friday close of $55.71, which means that, until the most recent news, the stock's value had lost just $0.09 for the month. It had made gains in that time, at one point approaching $58, and taken losses as well, scraping $55, but the point remains: this is a stock that holds its value surprisingly well.

Big News Gives the Stock a Boost

It was the most recent news that gave AstraZeneca a bump in pre-market trading, however: word out of the Trump administration pointed to possible plans to fast-track AstraZeneca's vaccine efforts through the Food and Drug Administration, with an eye toward getting it in play before the November Presidential elections.

The reports suggested that such a move hinged on the success—or failure, conversely—of a study of the vaccine candidate being staged in the UK right now, with 10,000 subjects involved. The study should release its preliminary results next month. The FDA, for its part, noted that it would take a study involving at least 30,000 people to fast track results in such a fashion, and that results from such a test—currently being launched in the US at last report—might not be available until after the election. Current FDA division chief Peter Marks, meanwhile, announced plans to resign should the Trump Administration push an approval without “adequate data” to show safety and effectiveness.

The move comes at a good time for AstraZeneca; just yesterday, the Trump Administration announced emergency use authorization for a new treatment measure for COVID-19, the use of “convalescent plasma.” That's basically just blood plasma derived from the blood of those who have previously had COVID-19 and survived it, which is a fairly substantial number of people in its own right.

A Political Play?

We know from previous efforts that the United States has been stockpiling both potential vaccines and coronavirus treatments like no tomorrow, coming in with massive deals to buy up available stock going forward for months at a time. The government placed hefty orders with Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX) for their mutual entry into the field, and Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) landed a similar order not so long ago.

Therapeutic measures have also been beneficiaries of government orders; Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) landed an order for half a million runs of Remdesivir, and at last report, the government still owns 63 million doses of hydroxychloroquine, a controversial if seemingly effective treatment on several fronts.

The politics behind such moves should surprise no one. As much as we may like to believe this is simply the government being compassionate and attempting to protect its people, we also know it's an election year. It took a pandemic to derail the progress we'd made, economically, so far, so it stands to reason that President Trump would be eager to get that progress back up and running. That requires taking on coronavirus directly, and with the sheer size of the arsenal of treatments and potential vaccines the government has built, all it really needs is an effective distribution program at this point.

The progress made so far has been staggering. If we've managed to find a way to stop a disease in its tracks this rapidly, it stands to reason we may be able to get the economy back on track too. That's an outcome a lot of business owners, their employees, and others are looking forward to, profoundly.