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Zika On Wall Street: Can These Companies Really Cash In On The Virus?

February 10, 2016

Via: Forbes
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With the Dow down 9% and the Nasdaq having plunged 15% since New Year’s, it has been a lousy start to 2016 on Wall Street—but you wouldn’t know it from the bang-up performance of Intrexon, Cerus and Inovio Pharmaceuticals. What do these three biotech companies have in common? They’re all hoping to cash in on the rise of Zika virus, the mosquito-borne illness that originated in Brazil and has been linked to birth defects. All three companies are working on methods for preventing or treating the virus.

The rush by investors to make outsized bets on companies that may have solutions to emerging, scary illnesses is nothing new, of course. We saw it in 2014 with Ebola, which pushed up the stocks of many companies working on treatments, including Inovio.

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