"COVID-19 And The Pharma Money Machine" by Maxwell

Thanks to Maxwell for, once again, contributing an excellent and informative article of his own making. 

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COVID-19 And The Pharma Money Machine

The first rule about the magic money tree is you don’t talk about the magic money tree.

The most historically accurate method to understanding monumental global events is to ask two simple questions:

1) What does it accomplish?

2) Who profits?

The Covid-19 Event rained misery down upon the vast majority of humanity.

Lockdowns eliminated the potential for millions of kids around the world and squashed the livelihoods of countless people across the globe.

The dignity of the elderly was stolen. Forbidden from seeing their family and friends, their last days and months were spent in forced isolation, their final moments surrounded by masked ghosts.

Psychological trauma became the norm. Everyday, people walked around with masks plastered to their faces, their fellow humans– and themselves– reduced to mobile germ bags, vectors of transmission.

The list of what was taken from us during this time is immeasurable and few of these things can ever be returned.

Yet, not everyone suffered. A small but powerfuaxl group benefited handsomely during the Covid Era.

Perhaps the biggest beneficiary of the ‘Covid Crisis’ was the Pharmaceutical Industry and its investors. In late 2019 what is inarguably one of the most profitable industries for investors had sunk to the bottom of industry rankings while their financial empires were in steep decline.

The arrival of Covid-19 erased these problems of public trust and financial adversity.

Data on the value of shares of Big Pharma before and after the declared “pandemic” reveal a historic reversal of fortunes. The prophets of high finance who had the wisdom, and connections, to foresee such events did not suffer, they cashed in.

Percentage drop and increase in share price in February-April 2020 of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies (value in dollars):

Before:

ROCHE HOLDING: 2/19/20 – $351.10; 3/12/20 – $274.45= -21.8%
JOHNSON & JOHNSON: 2/20/20 – $148.37; 3/12/20 – $125.41= -15.5%
GILEAD: 2/20//20 – $67.00; 3/12/20 – $68.58= +1.4%
AMGEN: 2/13/20 – $223.24; 3/12/20- $182.24= -18.3%
GLAXO: 2/10/20 – $44.61; 3/12/20 – $36.51 = -18.2%
NOVARTIS: 2/12/20 – $99.01; 3/12/20 – $74.07= -25.2%
MERCK: 2/10/20 – $81.74; 3/12/20 – $71.04= -13.1%
SANOFI: 2/10/20 – $51.22 3/12/20 – $40.87= -20.2%
ABBVIE: 2/13/20 – $95.35; 3/12/20 – $78.61= -17.6%
PFIZER: 2/11/20 – $36.14; 3/12/20 – $28.48= -21.2%

After:

ROCHE HOLDING: 3/12/20 - $274.45; 4/28/20 – $352.70= +28.5%
JOHNSON & JOHNSON: 3/12/20 – $125.41; 4/27/20 – $154.29= +23.2%
GILEAD: 3/12/20 – $68.58; 4/29/20 – $83.14= +22.2%
AMGEN: 3/12/20 – $182.24; 4/27/20 – $242.43= +32.9%
GLAXO: 3/12/20 – $36.51; 4/30/20 – $42.07= +13.21%
NOVARTIS: 3/12/20 – $74.07; 4/27/20 – $89.59= 21%
MERCK: 3/12/20 – $71.04; 4/27/20 – $80.13= +22.6%
SANOFI: 3/12/20 – $40.87; 4/27/20 – $50.63= +23.9%
ABBVIE: 3/12/20 – $78.61; 4/29/20 – $84.69= +7.7%
PFIZER: 3/12/20 – $28.48 4/29/20 – $36.17= +27%

Let's pause to speculate. Who knew what and when did they know it?

Addendum

Moderna-The New Kid In Town

Before the arrival of Covid-19, Moderna was described as, “A company in need of a Hail Mary”, as it was “hemorrhaging investors amidst safety concerns and other doubts about its mRNA delivery system.”

That needed miracle arrived.

On 2/12/20 Moderna stock was languishing at a paltry $19.01.

By 4/20/20 a single share of Moderna tripled from early February to $51.69 a share.

Three months later Moderna shares moved up to $80.86/share.

One year out from that dismal 2/12/20, $19.01 share price, Moderna was trading at a remarkable $174.74 per share and just heating up.

By 6/22/21 Moderna rose to $208.24 a share.

By 7/22/21, Moderna soared to $321.11/share.

By 9/23/21 Moderna closed at $454.60/share.

A star was born but even the most fortuitous of miracles can’t go on forever.

As of April 6th, 2022, wunderkind Moderna has ‘settled in’ at $154.62/share.

While a significant decline from the Olympian heights of 2021, still not a bad return on investment (assuming you were in on the ground floor) for a company that only a few years back was on the verge of bankruptcy and whose entire inventory consists of a solitary experimental neurotoxin.

As they say it's not what you know or who you know but when you buy and when you sell.