Vaccine hopes keep the D-Street party on; 5 stocks that are likely to benefit the most

Based on the technical structure, Pharma is getting ready for yet another round of action as most of its constituents have resumed from their near-term consolidation.

Kshitij Anand

Dec 9, 2020 / 02:42 PM IST

Source: Reuters

Indian market has rallied more than 50 percent since March-end which pushed benchmark indices beyond crucial resistance levels supported by COVID vaccine hopes, and flow of steady liquidity into equity markets.

The biggest beneficiary of the COVID outbreak has been the healthcare/pharma sector. The Nifty Pharma index has rallied more than 70 percent since March-end, but experts feel that there are other stocks in logistics segment that could also be vaccine plays in the near term.

Pfizer has applied for emergency use authorisation of its coronavirus vaccine in India, a top government health adviser said in a TV interview on Sunday, the first to do so in a country with the world’s second-highest number of infections.

Also Read: Pfizer Has Sought Emergency Approval For COVID-19 Vaccine In India

The U.S. company, whose vaccine was recently approved in Britain, approached Indian authorities on Saturday, V.K. Paul, who is advising the government on COVID-19 matters, said.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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