Strong Week For Swine Flu Small-Caps (DVAX, NVS, AZN, GSK, HEB, VICL, APT, SVA, PURE)

Tickerspy’s Swine and Bird Flu Index

SWINE AND BIRD FLU INVESTING IDEAS

• Popular long ideas: GILD, GSK, NVS
• Popular short ideas: SVA, NVAX, GSK
• Top dividend plays: AZN, GSK, NVS
• Pro favorites: GILD, NVS, BAX

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SWINE AND BIRD FLU COVERAGE

These companies all produce or are investigating production of treatments and vaccines for swine flu, bird flu, and other similar flu-like diseases with pandemic potential. Also included are companies that produce flu diagnostic tests.

• Can Flu Headlines Help Maintain Vaccine Stock Momentum? (CRXL, JNJ, INO, SVA, DVAX)
• H1N1 Pandemic Is Over, Leaves Stocks to Remember (NVS, SNY, GSK, HEB, APT, NVAX, SVA)
• Remember Swine Flu? It's Likely Officially Over (HEB, INO, NVAX, BCRX, SVA, NVS, GSK, GNBT, RHHBY)

SWINE AND BIRD FLU CHART

SWINE AND BIRD FLU METRICS

Avg. Market Cap:	$47.0B
Avg. P/E Ratio:	24.8
Avg. Div Yield:	1.1%

Dynavax Technologies (DVAX) shot higher on Thursday after an upgrade to Outperform from Neutral at Wedbush. The analyst more than doubled the firm’s price target to $6, citing optimism for leading product candidate Heplisav, a hepatitis B vaccine currently in Phase 3 testing. Meanwhile, according to the company website, other product candidates are being developed in affiliation with pharmaceutical giants Novartis AG (NVS), AstraZeneca (AZN), and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).

Dynavax earned its place in the Swine Flu and Bird Flu Stocks Index with the development of a universal flu vaccine, and while H1N1 hype powered the stock and its peers higher during 2009, most small-cap players have fallen sharply to levels supported by other products or businesses.

Over the past five sessions, Dynavax and four other small-cap swine flu players have gained more than 10% as biotech stocks have been heating up. Volatile micro-cap Hemispherx Biopharma (HEB), DNA-vaccine firm Vical (VICL), respirator mask play Alpha Pro Tech (APT), and Chinese biotech Sinovac Biotech (SVA) are all among top performers for the period, but each had fallen by at least a third from its 52-week high.

As of this writing, Pure Bioscience (PURE) is the only small-cap swine flu player to hang within -20% of its annual high-water mark after rocketing higher last month when the EPA cleared its silver-based disinfectant for use in what MarketWatch described as a variety of food-handling settings.

As a whole, the Swine Flu and Bird Flu Stocks Index has lagged the S&P 500 by -3% over the last month, and a look at its performance chart shows the dramatic spike and subsequent pullback in relation to the rise and fall of H1N1 hysteria.

Tags: APT, AZN, DVAX, GSK, HEB, NVS, PURE, SVA, VICL