The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[DewDiligence]

Re: Affinivax

In the course of my research I came across another vaccine company that makes this discussion [moot]. Affinivax has a-24 valent PCV that's at least 2 yrs ahead of Vaxcyte. They have a partnership with Astellas and just raised $226M in a round C in January after raising $120M last April...impressive.

I don’t necessarily agree that our discussion of PVCX is moot (and there’s more to come in my next post). The Affinimax program still has to complete multiple phase-2 and phase-3 trials before we can say it’s going to be a serious competitor in the PCV pediatric and/or adult markets. In the meantime, as a PFE investor I’ll be sure to track this program as closely as I can (considering that the Affinivax is private and Astellas plays its cards pretty close to the vest).

All told, the pneumococcal-vaccine market may be the largest sector of the drug/biotech industry that investors hardly ever talk about. I suppose pneumococcal vaccines are not as sexy as gene therapy or immuno-oncology, but that suits me just fine!