In February, I put together this piece on Massachusetts based biotechnology company VBI Vaccines Inc. (VBIV). At the time, the company had just reported a 6.72% stake held by world renowned healthcare and technology fund, Clarus Ventures, by way of its Clarus Lifesciences arm.
As noted at that point, VBI enjoys a strong base of institutional interest, yet remained firmly under the radar, as illustrated by its then market capitalization of around $180 million. Subsequent to my highlighting of VBI, the company ran up from around $4.5 a share to mid-March highs of $6.46 – a gain of more than 40% across in a period of circa four weeks. Subsequent to these highs, however, markets have sold off on VBI, and the company now trades for $5 flat.
I think this correction is just representative of the shorter term operators taking profits off the table, and in turn, that it might be a nice opportunity to pick up an exposure to VBI ahead of a return to the longer term upside momentum I detailed as likely in my prevous coverage.
Supportive of this statement, and since I first highlighted this one as being one to watch, management has put out a few key updates regarding the company’s lead product, and its underlying development and commercialization efforts. With this in mind, here’s a look at what’s changed between then and now, and how these changes impact my outlook going forward.
By way of a quick reintroduction to VBI, and for those that missed my initial coverage, the company’s lead program is rooted in a hepatitis B vaccine called Sci-B-Vac. It’s already approved in a host of countries, but not in the US, Europe or Canada. VBI is working to get it approved in these latter three markets (as these three markets represent the largest revenue potential for the company) and it’s on this asset, and indeed the company’s efforts in the just mentioned three regions, that markets are basing the majority of VBI’s valuation right now.
