Drugmakers stand to profit from vaccines thanks to climate change

A handful of drug companies with big vaccine portfolios are especially well-positioned to capitalize on the effects of climate change, according to a Morgan Stanley investors’ note.

The big picture: Climate change will be a business opportunity for some pharmaceutical companies. That’s nothing cynical — infectious diseases will spread faster and farther as the climate warms, and we treat infectious diseases with drugs.

The bottom line: Vaccine development is hard and expensive, so companies that are already in that business will have an upper hand, Morgan Stanley’s analysts wrote.

• Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline are at the top of the heap, the bank says, given their existing pipelines and manufacturing capacity.
• Takeda and Merck both have vaccines in the works for dengue fever, one of the diseases that climate change is likely to exacerbate.
• Janssen and Pfizer are both active in the vaccines market, but would need to establish new research programs to take on tropical diseases, per Morgan Stanley.

Go deeper: Climate change could be big business for pharma