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.
