There is no competition between the stock numbers of Novavax and Ocugen so far this year. Ocugen’s price has gone up around seven times more than Novavax’s stock has.
Does this make Ocugen the better vaccine company to buy right now? Not really. Here are four reasons why Novavax stock is still better than Ocugen.
1. A path to EUA in the United States
Ocugen’s share price went up over 750% year to date twice this year. But much of this huge gain evaporated after the firm disclosed back in June that it would not go for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) in this country for the covid vaccine Covaxin.
The company chose to go for complete approval once the FDA decided which vaccines would be reviewed for EUA. So far, however, Ocugen has not started the clinical late-stage studies that are needed to get complete FDA approval.
Meanwhile, Novavax does have United States EUA for its vaccine candidate, called NVX-CoV2373 as a top priority. The company will be later than it had wanted in filing for their authorization in the United State However, it has the possibility of launching in the United States much sooner than Ocugen might.
The U.S. is a big prize. And it is a prize for which Novavax certainly has a better opportunity as of now.
2. Supply deals in hand
Some investors could focus mostly on the approval or authorization for coronavirus vaccines. Without supply agreements with at least one nation, though, any regulatory actions will be pointless victories.
Ocugen does not have any supply deals yet finalized. Novavax, however, already has supply deals inside the U.S., the EU, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan (through its partner Takeda).
3. Complete rights to its covid vaccine
Ocugen has the commercialization rights from partner Bharat Biotech for the Covaxin vaccine only in the United States and Canada. Its agreement with Bharat allow them to keep 45% of the profits sales in those two nations.
Novavax created NVX-CoV2373 by itself. It has kept complete rights to its vaccine, although it has partnered with other companies to target some markets.
4. A better pipeline
Other than Covaxin, Ocugen does not have any other pipeline drug candidates currently undergoing clinical testing. The company has said it plans to push forward their experimental gene therapy called OCU400 into two phase 1/2a clinical trials this year, but those studies have not started yet.
Novavax has already begun positive results from its phase 3 study of its flu vaccine drug NanoFlu. It started phase 1/2 study looking into a combination of NanoFlu and NVX-CoV2373 in September of this year. The company also has two more clinical-stage drug candidates — an Ebola virus vaccine and respiratory syncytial virus vaccine ResVax.
Author: Steven Sinclaire
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