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Tag Archives: #COVID-19

TRUMPDESIVIR: OPERATION WARP SPEED, “ENGAGE.”

Photo: NBC

Operation Warp Speed:

The COVID-19 vaccine race officially goes into high gear with the announcement of USA’s plan to test the 6-odd top vaccine candidates across upwards of 150,000 volunteers (min. 100,000 pooled from VA hospitals and through participating pharmaceutical company recruitment efforts) in the coming months. The goal is to prove out both efficacy and safety in record time, with the lead candidates ferreted out by the end of 2020. The public-private funded ACTIV is a key driver of the initiative.

Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV):

(ACTIV) has identified four priorities in its effort to develop an international strategy for quickly developing therapeutics against the virus:

  • Develop a collaborative, streamlined forum to identify preclinical treatments
  • Accelerate clinical testing of the most promising vaccines and treatments
  • Improve clinical trial capacity and effectiveness
  • Accelerate the evaluation of vaccine candidates to enable rapid authorization or approval

Partners include 18 biopharmas, up from 16 when ACTIV was first announced on April 17.  Eisai and Gilead Sciences have joined a group of participating companies that included J&J and many other global biopharmas: AbbVie, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Evotec, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), KSQ Therapeutics, Merck & Co., Novartis, Pfizer, Roche and its Genentech subsidiary, Sanofi, Takeda Pharmaceutical, and Vir Biotechnology.

Cov-SARS-2 – What is does to the human body, from Valvular Heart Disease blog, valvereplacement.org :

“Cov-SARS-2 doesn’t put you into rapid ARDS (Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome) like SARS and MERS did. It slowly and progressively attacks your surfactant production. Surfactant is what our lungs make inside the alveoli (air sacs.). This is like lube inside the lungs; it makes the tissue stretchy, and the more of it you have the easier those little sacs open (the less pressure it takes.). With lower amounts it is harder and harder to inflate each minuscule sac, like trying to inflate a new balloon vs one that has been blown up a bajillion times. Eventually as the surfactant gets low enough, if you are not pushing to keep those air sacs open, they’ll stick/fuse together at the edges and no longer inflate at all. You are slowly developing more and more atelectasis (collapsed air sacs) and your lungs are regressing to be like a premature infant, born without prenatal steroid treatment. You cannot breathe without a vent, eventually.

This is why (it seems) it is hitting newborn infants hard and leaving most children alone; children’s lungs after they adjust to “life on the outside” make a crap ton of surfactant; you have to lubricate lungs VERY well to allow them to grow. Surfactant production starts to drop statistically much more quickly after age 50y. Surfactant is used up faster in some lung diseases like asthma. Diabetes affects surfactant production. It fits. The science is not well enough researched to be sure, but so far what we know for sure has not refuted this model; so far everything fits.

The problem is the EVENTUALLY. What is killing people on vents is only partially their lungs. Most of it is organ failure, a cascade that has always been nearly impossible to reverse. If it were just their lungs we’d have a decent chance.

The trouble is that CO2 diffuses vastly more rapidly across the alveolar matrix than oxygen. This isn’t a problem, it’s great, usually. Our bodies use acid/base pH sensors to monitor our acid status constantly (CO2 is an acid when dissolved in blood) and so we change our breathing to adjust. If we have too much CO2 we breathe faster. If we are making acid (working out, fever, too hot, drank engine cleaner, septic/poor circulation), then the acid monitor tells us to breathe faster. We feel short of breath; we breathe faster/harder and that ramps up our oxygen delivery. Oxygen goes up as a lovely side effect; when oxygen goes up our tissues are happier and make less acid. Solid system. Almost every form of lung disease comes on quickly enough, or affects the TISSUE of the lungs in such a way that BOTH CO2 and O2 levels are affected, so the breathing difficulty is fairly readily apparent. We can tell by talking to you, getting a history, watching how hard it is for you to breathe.

COVID doesn’t do that. As it picks off your alveoli one by one, you lose lung function so slowly that you may not consciously realize it other than feeling fatigued or chest pressure. If your CO2 levels remain stable, and there is *just* enough oxygen to go into organ failure, you may just feel off/tired/flu-like. This allows it to remain silent. Eventually your oxygen will drop. When it drops enough for your tissues and organs to start to starve, they will make acid and you will start to work harder to breathe. By the time it is obvious that you need to risk the ED to be seen, your oxygen levels may be as low as 40% EVEN THOUGH YOU WALKED INTO THE ED UNDER YOUR OWN POWER. The lowest reported so far is 38% in a patient who DROVE to the ED and WALKED in and was TALKING ON HIS CELL PHONE. But he was in multi system organ failure cascade and was dead within 18 hours. Not because they didn’t have a ventilator; because his oxygen had been too low for too long and his inflammatory cascade from organ failure was too severe. As oxygen drops below 80% the blood becomes more viscous and more likely to clot, increasing stroke risk.

So help keep your lungs open. Deep breaths at least a few once an hour while awake. Blow up a balloon once an hour. Dig out that old incentive spirometer plastic thingy they sent home with you from your last surgery that you never threw away. Do it preventively, and especially if you get sick. Report to your doctor if it is getting harder to do by the day. Check your oxygen if you even think you are sick, with a pulse oximeter; preferably one that is not a knock-off piece of crap, but even the knock off ones are more likely to unnecessarily scare you than to miss a real low (though some are misfired so the HR and the Pox show up in reverse fields, but still work; work out a little to raise your HR and see what happens.). If your O2 is consistently dropping less than 95% let your doctor know, and insist on at least a Telehealth appointment if you are below 90%. Early lung exercises, and home oxygen, may be enough when the disease process is caught early; it’s easier to prevent a snowball from rolling downhill than to stop the avalanche.

The countries with robust in-home state care programs instead of hospital based focus, that stored up on Pox and on PEP flutter (home lung therapy devices a little more advanced than balloons and incentive spirometry) are finding if they catch the low oxygen before it causes shortness of breath and use home oxygen that the mortality rate plummets. Still preliminary, but the science is good.

Stay safe, stay well, as we slowly take more risks out of necessity. Please feel free to share the information above with friends and family, but if it’s not our immediate relatives then try to copy and paste to keep my name out of it; I don’t want to go viral. Information accurate insofar as I know as of May 2, 2020.”

Asset allocation:

In the BRRRR …. phase of global central banking, any stock with a ticker symbol, save opaque financials, have spouted wings since the March equity lows. Some investors clearly want more, all facets of COVID-19 plays from all corners of the planet vie for your investment dollars. Chose your horse, and you stable carefully, as the majority will likely be glue factory feedstock. With a well proportioned allocation to invest/wager on the outcome, this mosaic is meant to frame the optimal allocation across the COVID-19 field on offer.

Antivirals / Vaccines / Therapies:

There are 224 candidates in development for the treatment of COVID-19 currently. Given the breadth of the product offerings by the “big boys”, an allocation to them has much less risk than the single product “hail Mary”plays. My basket will include ACTIV name hopefuls.

$JNJ Johnson & Johnson – Yet unnamed adenovirus-based vaccine with 2 back ups. $1bln agreement with the US biomedical research unit BARDA to advance efforts. $380bln mkt cap. Subsidiary Janssen key player. Not a 5 banger, but needs to be in your C-19 basket. Spot $77, down 14% ytd. Like placing a wager on the favorite at 7:2 odds. Securing additional capacity deals enabling JNJ to make 1 billion doses by the end of 2021. Please assign a name to your drug, even as a place holder (Ivankavir?).

$GILD Gilead. Most recent Remdesivir test results show broad but subtle improvement in human trials versus placebo. Not enough cowbell for a $1k/treatment drug with IV only as a means of administering. 1.5mm initial doses to be donated, enough for 200k patients. It will make the grade for further testing, but will not make the grade for my C-19 basket. Note : owned in May 2020 via calls, since sold (June $70 strike sold $13). Spot $73.34. No C-19 wager, but I’d like Gilead to buy $SGMO for $40 in 2021.

Generic drugs made by $TEVA, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., $MYL, Mylan NV, $SNY, Sanofi, $NVS, Novartis AG, $BAYN.BE, Bayer AG and others. Hydroxychloroquine, chloroquine. Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine are anti-malarial drugs that have been tested in other outbreaks. Decades old, they’re available as lower-cost generics., as in $1/pill. Trump is a fan. Safety concerns abound, but if there is a role, especially on a supervised basis, these drugs should be in the mix. Carrying rocks straight uphill despite the cost advantage as the World Health Organization has temporarily halted testing on hyroxychloriquine in its COVID-19 drug trials pending more data because of safety concerns. The Lancet published a study which linked the drug to an increased risk of death and heart ailments.

$MRNA Moderna is the current COVID-19 darling. $69 and sporting a mkt cap of $25.6bln. Moderna’s mRNA-1273 utilizes messenger RNA to prompt the body to produce a key protein from the virus, creating an immune response. Moderna’s novel approach should have less safety concerns as well. A near term caveat is Moderna’s questionable executives who sold $30 million in stock concurrent with the stage 1 announcement (pre peer review) and promptly issued a secondary stock offering while the ducks were quacking ($1.25bln). Despite investors needing PPE to protect from the slime, it is hard to bet against this mRNA filly. Highly connected with $489 million in government funding (huge support in relation to their market cap). The NIH (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease) ran the phase 1 trial. Phase 3 trials are  expected to commence as early as July 2020. Owned adult portion early (high 20’s) and sold in low $30’s. Seller remorse has impeded my re-entry (humans), but this name will be in the COVID-19 basket. mRNA-1273 will with near certainty make the cut for the “warp speed” program.

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) has granted considerable support to several names:CEPI has moved quickly and collaboratively to rapidly develop vaccines against the COVID-19 virus. CEPI are also collaborating with GSK and will use their pandemic vaccine adjuvant platform technology to enhance the development of an effective vaccine.

$GSK GlaxoSmithKline plc and Sanofi ($SNY) are working jointly to develop a drug Sanofi already employs in one of its flu vaccines. Unnamed viral protein vaccine (yet another, bad move as noted).

$SNY Sanofi. Oseltamivir, sold under the brand name Tamiflu, is an antiviral medication used to treat and prevent influenza. Formerly owned by Roche.

$ABBV. AbbVie’s HIV drug Kaletra is being tested, both stand alone and in concert with other drugs for the treatment of COVID-19. AbbVie have taken the approach of giving up patent rights to the drug to lessen shortages and open the floodgates to generic versions of the medicine.

$MRK, Merck has been quiet overall. Their animal drug Ivermectin (sold as HeartGuard for Dogs) a drug for parasitic infections is getting touted as having some potential. No human testing has taken place yet (i.e. all in vitro).

Edit: ** Merck breaking news** (Big) After me chiding $MRK for being “quiet” they pulled the trigger, 2 actually in the COVID-19 space, 4:45pm Tokyo time (3:45 EST); Merck Says IAVI and Merck Collaborate to Develop Vaccine Against Covid-19 >MRK
Merck and Ridgeback Bio Collaborate to Advance Development of an Oral Antiviral Candidate for Covid 19, EIDD-2801 >MRK, “Oral anti-viral”, Merck (MRK) to Apply its Industry-Leading Vaccine Development Capabilities to SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Program Originated by Themis and Institut Pasteur, Merck To Acquire Themis >MRK, Merck Says to Make Any Vaccine or Medicine It Develops for Pandemic Broadly Accessible and Affordable Globally >MRK$.

Merck: Deal to Accelerate Development of Themis Covid-19 Vaccine Candidate >MRK
[7:49 PM] KENILWORTH, N.J. & NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Merck(MRK) , known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, and IAVI, a nonprofit scientific research organization dedicated to addressing urgent, unmet global health challenges, today announced a new collaboration to develop an investigational vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 to be used for the prevention of COVID-19. This vaccine candidate will use the recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (rVSV) technology that is the basis for Merck’s Ebola Zaire virus vaccine, ERVEBO® (Ebola Zaire Vaccine, Live), which was the first rVSV vaccine approved for use in humans. Merck(MRK) has also signed an agreement with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response within an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, to provide initial funding support for this effort.

NVAX Novavax, NVX-CoV2373 has snagged $388 million of CEPI funding for their vaccine which is meant to bock the protein “spike” that the virus uses to attack/infect its host. Up 2x in May alone. $2.7bln mkt cap. Human trials are now underway. The mere mentions of human trials we enough to get the markets to giddy up over the Memorial Day long weekend and it appears this week’s winner’s circle will include a photo op with Novavax. Theoretically rational investors love flocking to the latest craze, crypto, cannabis and now C-19 vaccine hunting. As they say, if you can find a bubble, “buy it”.

$BNTX, BioNTech SE, $PFE Pfizer Inc. BNT162. BioNTech’s BNT162 is another messenger RNA vaccine, the German company is developing the potential preventative treatment with Pfizer. In China, BioNTech is co-developing the vaccine with Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group. Given the geopolitical situation between the quad tension points of  PRC, Taiwan, Hong Kong and the USA, solutions without a leg in China (esp. USA domiciled) are likely to garner more investment. 50% off its giddy highs of March. No micro-cap at $11.5bln. Makes the grade for the C-19 basket nonetheless.

 

Imperial College of London (private), unnamed. Researchers have received funding from the United Kingdom for their vaccine project and have said they aim to begin clinical trials in June. Not investable, it should be noted. The other direction is “game on” though. An MIT professor that invested in Moderna early is worth $1bln, on paper.

 

$AZN. Oxford University (private), $AZN AstraZeneca Plc, ChAdOx1 nCov-19. The vaccine is made from a harmless virus that’s been altered to produce the surface spike protein from SARS-CoV-2. After stating they had an 80% chance of success, lead Dr. Adrian Hill is now back-pedaling hard and stated this weekend that their chances are < 50%. $AZN have said they could have 30 million doses ready by September. There is less apprehension for European involvement than China obviously, but there is still a clear preference for a “made in the USA” label on a successful COVID-19 vaccine.

 

$VIR Vir Biotechnology Inc., $GSK GlaxoSmithKline Plc, unnamed drug. The companies plan to use the gene-editing technology Crispr to find antibody targets for the disease. (2 discrete candidates). Even the mention of “Crispr” tech has seen those plays catch a bid; $CRSP, $NTLA and zinc-finger leader $SGMO. $GSK stable has a couple of horses in the race and as such gets a full weighting. $VIR with a market cap of a mere $1.7bln, Vir is a baby amongst giants and is worthy of a place on your C-19 betting card. The stock, while up 170% ytd 2020 is 44% of its highs, incl. a -9% “bag tag” on Friday coming into the Memorial Day long weekend. In the C-19 shopping basket it goes.

 

$FUJIY, Fujifilm (pharma subsidiary). Favipiravir, sold under the brand name Avigan, is an antiviral medication used to treat influenza in Japan. The government has decided to postpone approving Fujifilm Holdings Corp’s Avigan drug for the treatment of COVID-19 until June or later. Shares slumped last week after it was reported that an interim study showed no clear evidence of efficacy for Avigan in COVID-19 cases.

 

$INO, Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc.,  INO-4800. Inovio’s experimental vaccine uses DNA to activate a patient’s immune system. $14/sh, $2.2bln mkt cap. Up 4.5x ytd 2020. Testing underway in China, a caveat for me on this one (with Beijing Advaccine Biotechnology).

 

$BTI British Tobacco. Drug; Tobacco. In April, BAT announced that its biotech subsidiary, Kentucky BioProcessing (KBP), was developing a potential vaccine for COVID-19. Since then, British Tobacco have been completing pre-clinical testing and are pleased to report the potential vaccine has been shown to produce a positive immune response. As such, the vaccine candidate is now poised to progress to the next stage which will be Phase 1 human clinical trials pending FDA authorization.

There are any number of other names, some worthy of vetting, and even perhaps rental from an ownership perspective, but they will not be in the “ACTIV” basket.

$SRNE, Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc.  $4 to $10 and back to $5. Their approach seems “far fetched”.

Therapies:

 

$REGN Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Sanofi.  Kevzara The biotechnology drug targets a pathway known as interleukin-6 or IL-6, which can affect inflammation. It’s already approved for rheumatoid arthritis and could help very sick Covid-19 patients in respiratory distress. $REGN has run like a scolded dog, up 53% ytd 2020. $570/sh.with a $64bln mkt cap.

 

$RHHBY Roche Holding AG, Chugai Pharmaceutical Co.,  Actemra, alone or in combination with the flu drug Avigan. Actemra is an arthritis medication that also targets IL-6, like Kevzara does. Roche is enormous, > $300bln mkt cap. In the basket, but equal weighted (not cap weighted as most ETF’s are).

 

$TAK,  Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.,  Convalescent plasma (TAK-888). Takeda is exploring whether blood plasma from recovered Covid-19 patients, which can contain infection-fighting antibodies, can be used against the illness. Similar treatments have shown promise in treating other serious infections. The Japanese drugmaker plans to start clinical trials in July and could file for approval of a plasma-derived treatment for Covid-19 in some regions by the end of the year. U.S. studies will be done with the NIH. The FDA has also offered guidance to researchers and hospitals that want to use convalescent plasma on an experimental basis.

 

$INCY  Incyte Corp., $NVS Novartis AG, Jakafi. Jakafi, or Jakavi as its called outside the U.S., belongs to a class of drugs known as JAK inhibitors that target inflammation and repress cellular proliferation. In April, Incyte and Novartis started a 400 patient trial to address a potential deadly reaction to the disease, called a cytokine storm, in which a patient’s immune system kicks into dangerous overdrive while trying to kill the virus. The drug will also be available for emergency use for Covid-19 patients in the U.S.

 

$LLY Eli Lilly & Co.,  Baricitinib.  Baricitinib, an existing rheumatoid arthritis drug marketed by the brand-name Olumiant, also belongs to the class of drugs known as JAK inhibitors.

 

Sources: Bloomberg, Company Websites., Press Releases

 

 

Test kits (PCR):

$QDEL; 4 key investable names; $TMO Thermo Fisher $340, $134bln mkt cap. Roche $RHHBY $44.70 mkt cap $310bln. $QDEL Quidel Corp, $173.50, mkt cap $7.3bln and $QGEN Qiagen NV $43, mkt cap $9.8bln. As only 25% of the C-19 allocation is to “picks & shovels” inclined to go with $QDEL for full allocation. USA baby, San Diego, CA headquarters and the Cadillac player in the diagnostics/testing space.

Thermal imaging:

$FLIR $45, mkt cap $5.9bln. Orders up 7x yoy. GM latest big order and more on the follow as the US re-opens. Turn key solution. Little upside for going cheap on this equipment in the current environment. Demand, pricing power, service contracts. Winner winner chicken dinner. Get in the C-19 basket FLIR Systems.

PPM:

$MMM, 3M Down 19% ytd. Sales down 11% in Q1 in the middle of a pandemic. No thank you as an investment, but keep those critical N-95 masks coming.

ETF:

$IBB iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF is up 11% ytd in 2020. A stellar result without the idiosyncratic risk of bespoke single name exposure, but it does not give one much COVID-19 name exposure. The ETF hold 8.9% in Gilead, $GILD which as noted I would not buy presently. Also included is 6.6% in Regeneron, $REGN, 2.5% in $INCY, Incyte Corporation and 2% in Moderna, $MRNA.

$IBB monthly returns. etfreplay.com

Summary:

Arm you immune system, regardless of age. Sleep, sun, a good diet, vitamin C, vitamin D (indicated low in 90% of COVID-19 patients), zinc and Quercetin. It is possible that no vaccine is found, or the ones that are developed work with efficacy levels that render them near useless. I’m no authority, nor a doctor, but remain hopeful that progress will be made on the slated timetable and that we have some pharma cover by the first half of 2021. The global A team is on the case.

Japan has lifted the State of Emergency for the nation and international travel restrictions should be relaxed by month end (China and S. Korea had been pressing on this point). Japan has had a total of 16,581 COVID-19 cases and 830 deaths.  The US is 2.6x bigger from a population perspective, but is still adding a comparable amount of cases per day (1,700,000 total cases and 100,000 deaths). As previously noted, obesity rates are 4% in Japan versus 35%+ in North America. BGC vaccination for TB seems to result in milder cases for countries that employ it.

Doctors/scientists  have successfully mapped the genome for Cov-SARS2, the strain of the coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 disease. It is spliced like a satanic DJ might mix his favorite rap, a bit of HIV, a touch of SARS, a dash of MERS and an Ebola finisher. It is no coincidence that the “B-side” of formerly attempted drug approvals for these maladies are getting airtime once again. Drugs used in combination are likely to have greater success, given the complexity of the riff, but the time line for testing is obviously elongated if this path is eventually deemed optimal. 6 choose 2 has 15 combinations. 7 choose 2 has 21 combinations. 7 choose 3 has 35 potential combinations, you get the idea. Vaccines are hard.

Europe’s COVID-19 cases crested well before the USA and even though Europeans are more inclined to go on vacation than back to work, their economic numbers should get “off the mat” ahead of the USA. (Near term € positive).

The 16 highlighted names (i.e. names in bold) on the vaccine / therapies / anti-virals space should give you broad of the exposure to the space (equal weighted despite marked market cap differences). The 2 ancillary names ($QDEL & $FLIR) should do well stand-alone, regardless of who comes out #1 on the vaccine.

Trade safe. Allocate prudently. Set stop losses. Casting such a wide net, re-balance periodically, increasing the weight in winners and cutting under-performers. This is going to take some time, with perhaps 4 core name long by early 2021 as you pare the laggards. A fast moving space. Correct as I could make it at press time, 4:22pm Tuesday May 26, in the year of our Lord 2020.

Regards, Caleb Gibbons, CFA, FRM

@firehorsecaper

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INSURANCE SECTOR: WHO’S ZOOMIN’ WHO

Should the insurance sector be left for dead, or is there any semblance of value beneath the multi-layered COVID-19 ruble?

No sectors were immune from the March 2020 left-tail quickening that brought global equities to their knees in a snap reaction to the “Chinese virus” (POTUS’s term), COVID-19’s seemingly inevitable global roll-out, still underway.

Chart: total return, by year: $KIE, the SPDR Insurance ETF, while smartly off recent lows, sits -26% ytd in 2020 (updated through 29 April 2020). $XLF, the much larger and broader Financial Services SPDR ETF $XLF is down 23.4% ytd in comparison (largest weighting in $BRK.B at 15% with 12% in $JPM).

Early estimates for COVID-19 insured losses for the global insurance industry come from UBS which estimates a wide range of US$30-$60 billion. Included in this estimate is $7-$22bln in non-US business interruption losses and $8-$16bln in credit insurance losses, primarily re-insurance. The lock-down has hit the service led US economy particularly hard. Paycheck-to-paycheck has taken on new meaning for throngs of employees caught in the maelstrom. Not enough time has passed to see the full repercussions. Decisive action has been taken for certain, with the USA leading the charge. Monetary policy has spent its wad at this juncture, save negative rates which perhaps can not be ruled out in the “upside-down” MMT world. The fiscal stimulus measures announced have been awe inspiring with respect to both size and breadth, the tally in terms of cost now within a stone’s throw of 30% of GDP. As Canada’s Poloz (BoC Governor, this week) noted at their last meeting, “A fireman never gets accused of using too much water.”

Chubb Insurance ($CB), headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, CEO Evan Greenberg cautioned last week that the industry is at risk of insolvency if open-ended business interruption claims (even those policies where losses from the peril were explicitly excluded from coverage) are enforced.

Source Bloomberg, “Lawmakers in states including New Jersey have considered legislation forcing insurers to pay out certain interruption losses for small businesses, with some bills requiring insurers to pay out even if policies explicitly excluded losses from viruses. The American Property Casualty Insurance Association has estimated that companies with 100 employees or fewer could see business continuity losses of as much as $431 billion a month, compared with the $800 billion in total surplus for all U.S. home, auto and business insurers.” Mr. Greenberg expects eventual COVID-19 claims to be the biggest ever recorded for the industry, which would tighten the UBS estimate band considerably to US$45.1-$60bln.

Greenberg, clearly sensing the legal landmine that lies ahead, urged Congress to grant some broad legal immunity for the insurance industry. Insurance regulation is a combination of State and Federal responsibility in the USA, roughly weighted 70%+ State. Court decisions are extremely important and historically when it comes to policy language interpretation, the courts often rule in favor of the insured. Evan further noted that the  loss potential from a pandemic are infinite and that insurance company balance sheets are finite. His father Hank Greenberg ran AIG, the name should be somewhat familiar. Chubb has a mkt cap of $51bln and is 32% of its 52-week highs versus the more opaque AIG, sporting a market cap of $23bln and an oil like 50% off its early 2020 pinnacle.

Chubb CEO Greenberg is correct in noting that the insurance industry is a critical part of the plumbing of the economy. Global insurers manage over US$25 trillion in assets, the majority allocated to bonds (credit risk).

Chart credit Twitter; @the _chart_life

GFC; AIG Financial Products

AIG was the biggest seller of credit default swaps on the street in 2007. Their comments as we rolled through the summer of 2007 were like a fortuneteller. “It is hard for us, without being flippant, to see a scenario within any realm of reason that would see us losing 1 dollar in any CDS position.” A short 5 months later AIG wrote down their CDS book by > $5bln. AIG’s $20bln Muni GIC (aka Investment Agreement) book soon took write downs as well as they guaranteed “make-whole” on a loss of AAA/Aaa. The initial Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was sized at US$700bln. It was a source of a great deal of consternation as the time, the gob-smacking size of it. Those were the days. Instead of taking equity stakes in the targeted firms, a full 1/3 ($235bln)was clawed back via various and sundry fines for all forms of malfeasance. There were no perp walks and Martha Stewart served more time solely that the lot of them collectively.

To get back on point, 9-11 was the largest single insured loss in history, to date. $45bln in insured loss were paid. 2/3 of the eventual losses were paid my re-insurers (the mechanism by which insurers lay-off/hedge their risk). In a parallel to COVID-19, legal matters became paramount. Most policies at the time were “All-Risk Policies” (covering all possible risks, save those explicitly excluded in the policy text) versus what has now become more common, namely “Named Perils” policies. A long standing exclusion on insurance policies is war, but there can be others, such as flood, earthquakes (if covered, often at a lower absolute level here in Japan, given the prevalence, “Ring of Fire” and all).

Those of us working/living in lower Manhattan on 9-11 thought it our last loss, as in the “final loss”. I was working that morning at One Liberty Plaza across the street from the WTC towers, already in the thick of it and gazing on a brilliant blue sky in lower Manhattan between morning market updates calls. I was on the phone selling the days wares when the 1st plane hit the North Tower , changing our lives henceforth. More screens than a sports bar were reporting perhaps an errant Cessna struck the formidable 1 WTC tower. From our close proximity the sounds, the evidence of it all (i.e. flames, debris falling)  told another story all together, a more sinister version of events. Our trading floor was gracefully on the 2nd floor and a small grouping of us escaped One Liberty Plaza (OLP), pulling the fire alarm as we exited, well before 9am. I had just moved into a flat on Park Row and was concerned my fiancée might be in harm’s way, walking our dog in the vicinity. Most colleagues were held inside OLP to reduce the risk of injury from falling debris. From my bedroom window I saw the 2nd plane strike the South Tower ….. this is a terrorist attack honey, let’s get to street level. We watched the ferocious fire burning 4/5th up the North Tower and mused how it could possibly be extinguished. It took less than 2 hours for One WTC (WTC 1) to succumb to the litany of hell like temperatures. Fire & rescue loudspeakers warned a few minutes prior and we backed our way towards Brooklyn Bridge which Park Row filtered directly into. I was filming the tower at the time of the critical “break”, when the substructure could no longer support itself. The building fell straight down, like a demented Wile E. Coyote cartoon. I spun on my heel and tucked the Frenchie (Yukon) under my arm as we jetted for escape across into Brooklyn. News of the concurrent strikes blared from car radios with doors ajar and early estimates were that as many as 50,000 American may have perished in the co-ordinated attacks. The dust cloud unleashed by the collapse of the North Tower was tremendous and given the sinister, other worldly funk we found ourselves in my thoughts as the cloud enveloped us were “Did these terrorists fill these planes with Sarin gas to boot?” (As Aum Shinrikyo had perpetrated in Tokyo subway 6 years prior, killing 13). The air was gritty, but breathable. We made it eventually to our disaster recovery site in Long Island City and found organized chaos. Our chairman was at the disaster recovery site are noted he had one of the few hotel rooms in the area booked, flipping me the card key with directions. French bulldogs and paring risk in dollops of a few million $ per basis point of risk exposure did not mix well, apparently.  We never did make it to the “fancy” hotel and caught a few hours sleep at a flea-bag motel in one the worst of neighborhoods, undetermined miles north. Kick-out early morning because of the mutt, we eventually made to a friend’s place in Hoboken the morning of the 12th. The first flight to Japan was Sept. 19th and my fiancée was on the flight. The dog was in cargo and I’m sure the wedding would have been cancelled if the dog had not made it. Japan waived their quarantine (30 days) with the ability to inspect the animal at regular intervals. The final certificate we needed to get the dog in was issued exclusively by an office in the former 1 WFC. The wedding took place the first week of October. While under a high degree of stress, dressed in a kimono (borrowed from Gojoro, a sumo wrestler with links to the family), reciting Shinto vows it was a miraculous win, esp. for me. My team was temporarily moved North to Toronto, Canada which was certainly difficult for key staff, being away from family in a time of uncertainty. Less fortunate firms had their “back up” data centers and even disaster recovery centers in the adjacent WTC tower. Margins reflected the turmoil and management gave thought to keeping up permanently in “T zero”, as Toronto was affectionately known. The Royal York, while close by, was not home and the lads were getting restless to return to the “Big Apple”. Mike Bloomberg saved the day and granted us some space in a trading room fashioned out of a converted warehouse in Tribeca (Bloomberg terminal at every station) in early 2012 and we re-entered OLP on Valentine’s Day 2012. Almost 800 windows had to be replaced and all soft materials down to the carpets were re-fitted, but we were back. Despite being across the street from the outlined direct hit, we suffered no fatalities. 9-11 was the worst ever event with respect to loss of life for firefighters, 343 having perished, along with 72 law enforcement officers and 55 military personnel. On-going ailments from first responders and clean-up crews are on-going, with extended benefits just granted in 2019 for some.

The eventual 9-11 loss of life was a horrendous 2,977, tallied many weeks/months after. The 13 acre WTC site was a smoldering, caustic mess and over 1 million square ft. of office space was zeroed out in one go. Insurance losses were quite evenly split between commercial liability, group life and business interruption. The courts were involved in the settlement of the WTC tower coverage as the insurer sought to cap their payout at US$3.55bln with the key clause being whether it was 1 event or 2. Silverstein eventually settled in 2007 for $4.55bln. The lawyers always make out OK, it seems. A full 2/3 of the loss fell to re-insurers.

The property & casualty  insurance industry was in shambles, not because of the insured losses per se (a war exclusion does not cover idealogical differences), but losses from terrorist acts became effectively un-insurable with private insurers from that day onward. The white horse arrived  in the knick of time in the form of the Government sponsored TRIP (Terrorism Risk Insurance Program) program, not to be confused with Stephen King’s Captain Trips from “The Stand”. The Federal loss sharing program was well crafted and was tweaked on a couple of iterations as the plan life was extended. In a nod to law enforcement and Homeland Security there has never been a terrorist claim in the USA since 9-11. Quite remarkable, historians will attest. We perhaps have a template for global pandemic coverage to boot (Acronym to follow).

Post GFC a complex web of regulations were put in force globally. Of the current top 100 financial companies in the world, 40 are insurers. The list of G-SII’s (Globally Systemically Important Insurers) issued by the FSB (Financial Stability Board) existed from 2013 through the beginning of 2020 (no longer required, impeccable timing). The exit list included 8 global insurers (market cap US$):

Allianz (German), parent of PIMCO, mkt cap $73bln

AIG (US), mkt cap $24bln

Aegon, (Netherlands) mkt cap $6bln

Aviva (UK), mkt cap, mkt cap $13bln

AXA (France), mkt cap $43bln

Metlife (US), mkt cap $34bln

Ping An (China), mkt cap $227bln

Prudential (UK), mkt cap $38bln

Aggregate mkt cap $458bln. Ping An 50%. USA (2) 13%.

 

Supreme Court

The courts do not always rule against the insurers. Just this week, a long standing case came down on the side of the health insurance industry (aka Obamacare Insurers) where it was decided the $12 billion promised them by the Obama administration to aid in the 3 year implementation period  of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2014 must be paid. The vote was not close 8-1 in favor of the insurers, the government must make the payments to effected insurers.

In a famous event cancellation policy case, a Lloyd’s of London underwriter refused to pay the US$17.5 million Michael Jackson’s concert promoter AEG took out on the “This Is It” tour in 2009. At the time of the purchase of the policy key details were withheld with respect to the “King of Pop”, his poor health, drug use and prescription. The court case was not settled until 2014. Insurance companies must protect themselves from adverse selection, a higher than average risk seeking coverage at the average risk. The only real protection in this regard comes from prudent underwriting practices. Lloyd’s of London is not actually an insurance company, rather it is a syndicate of underwriter. A study unto itself, individual underwriters used to carry unlimited liability until a few individual members (family offices effectively) were forced into bankruptcy by 1999 asbestos claims. Yet another example of an open-ended liability, asbestos isa generic term for a fibre that has a length 3x its width. When working in environments where asbestos is prevalent workers can easily breath in the fibers which can lodge in the lining of the lungs, over time (20+ years in some cases) forming a pearl, which is often cancerous. To ensure their longevity as a company. Lloyd’s capped the liability of individual underwriters thereafter.

In 2020, Wimbeldon collected £125 million (US$145mm) on a pandemic insurance cancellation policy they put in place 17 years ago after the SARS outbreak in 2003. Their annual premium for the policy was £1.5 million and they have paid out £25.5mm in policy premiums to date.

Moral hazard is another key concern with insurance fraud costing as estimate $80bln per annum.

Total annual insurance premiums in 2018 were  $5.2 trillion (6% of global GDP) with 54% life insurance and 46% property & casualty. The US is the biggest insurance market in the world, accounting for 29% of the total with a penetration rate of 7.1% (premium as a % of GDP). China is the 2nd largest insurance market ($575mm in 2018 premiums), followed by Japan ($441mm) and the UK ($337mm).

Director and Officers Insurance (D&O). Elon Musk has increased his shareholder loans to over 50% to “self-insure” Tesla’s D&O insurance, which Musk this week deemed too expensive. The Tesla board (10 strong) includes Elon’s brother Kimbal Musk. Considerable risk exist from the ongoing class action lawsuit relating to the 2016 acquisition of sister form Solar City to the on-going self driving experiment involving live crash test dummies. Firms like Toyota and Nissan, that have spent considerably more on self driving technology than Tesla caution that the current tech is not ready for “prime time” beyond closed loop applications. It is a good thing that Elon has deep pocket to backstop and/all lawsuits that might be brought against the Tesla board. They have a degree of “wrong way risk” with the war chest of fiat US$ margined against his holding of $TSLA stock (he owns 27%), but I’m sure it will be fine.

Globalization of the insurance industry over the last few decade have seen waves of consolidation as mutual insurers largely de-mutualized to become stock corporations. Many jurisdictions have seen the lion’s share of market fall to half a dozen players. In the USA almost 4 million people (3.8mm) work in some facet of the insurance industry (>5,000 insurance companies). There are over 750 life insurance companies in the US (down from >2k in the 90’s) and > 2,500 property & casualty insurers and 860 health insurance companies. There are still 85 fraternal insurers (8% of in-force life insurance policies) in the US with Thrivent being the largest (founded by the Lutherans).

A basic tenent of insurance is the concept of indemnification, i.e. putting the insured in a similar position as they were prior to experiencing a loss. Some categories of insurance are not suited to the public insurance markets, unemployment insurance being one such category. It has been reported that in some states >50% of workers on unemployment insurance are making more on a take-home basis than they were when working. Such largess can only be found by the folks running the printing presses and obviously must have a terminus once shelter-at-home orders are lifted. “At risk” populations must clearly be protected as restrictions are lifted across the globe, but clearly the medicine (extreme behavioral modification/ lock-down as a vaccine is developed and the Ro is brought to a manageable level) is not supposed to be worse than the disease. Fail we may, sail we must.

COVID-19:

COVID-19 global prevention measures affect the various business lines of global insurers in distinctly different ways. Commercial, Speciality & Personal lines:

Auto insurance. Caught in the grips of shelter-in-place orders, few are driving. Claims have plummeted, leading leading insurers to rebate customers auto insurance premiums. Allstate has pledged to return $600 million in premiums to policy holders. State Farm, who insure 10% an Americans will be rebating as well, a total of $2bln. Berkshire’s GEICO appears to be less enthusiastic, offering 15% off of renewals.

Business interruption insurance will be the big category for COVID-19, very open ended and a potential tail risk for P&C insurers. The early data from the UK allows for some extrapolation with £1.5bln  in BI claims paid thus far in 2020. With a UK GDP of 2.9tln this scales to $13.125bln for the USA ($20.5 tln GDP). The UK has also paid out $275mm in trip cancellation insurance. Heavy pressure is being applied to insurance companies pay claims promptly and to take an “insured friendly” interpretation of contract terms (from the UK Treasury Committee). It seem to have fallen on deaf ears thus far, with 71% of business interruption claims declined upon submission.

Credit & surety markets will see higher claims as the construction industry globally has been heavily delayed. All specialty lines; aviation, marine, construction and energy have been negatively affected.

Life insurance. Even with global deaths from C-19 approaching 229,000 and US at 61,680, overall death rates are at a 6 year low. The double digit COVID-19 case fatality rates have been evident in those >65 and esp. in those with comorbidity (obesity, diabetes, heart disease, renal disease). 78% of the aggregate reported COVID-19 deaths are from those aged > 65. The UK has seen a life policy surrender rate spike  of 4% since the onset of COVID-19. Whole life currently has a surrender rate approaching 50% by the 10 year anniversary. For many, term life (2x base for each dependent) is often the way to go to cover that critical age 25-65 year period. Underwriting standards are changing rapidly, with John Hancock now only selling new life policies on those that agree to wear a Fitbit (or equiv.). 40% of all the life insurance in force is group life which is all term life underlying.

Dr. Peter Attia, podcast “the drive”.

Early numbers out of China are dire from an earnings perspective with China Life reporting -34% for Q1 2020 and Ping An -43%.

Hard markets lie ahead in the insurance industry. Tighter underwriting standards and higher prices. In the P&C sector the major risk categories include tornadoes, thunderstorms, hurricanes, draught & wildfires. Economic losses in the USA exceeded $650bln over the 2017 – 2018 period. Insured losses were the highest ever over the same period $136bln in 2017 followed by $50bln in 2018 (and $41bln in 2019).

Across some business lines insurers will be dealing with an existential crisis. A deemed lack of value-add is a real risk. A threat of relevance is also a risk  if policy exclusions are broadened going forward. While there are less global fixed income securities trading at negative yields, more in aggregate trade closer to the zero bound as well, threatening to make long-tail lines uneconomical at current rates.

Expense ratios for insurers will go up as they outsource help to assist with claims adjustment in an environment of lock-down.

Summary;

Insurance is a key global sector. It is both  complex sector and a difficult one to assist via direct programs given its international nature (footprint, ownership, & multi-line nature).

The average equity drawdown in a recession is 33% and the recent BRRR … inspired bounce has us inside of 10% down from the February 2020 highs (almost flat in the tech heavy NASDAQ). When the risk guys are modeling the fallout of an Illinois or Italy default it is probably not the time to daydream about multiple expansion or S&P earning flat to 2019.

Dry powder, in the form of a larger allocation to cash are prudent in the current environment. Gun to my head to allocate new $ in the insurance space, I’d buy Berkshire Hathaway ($BRK-B), $818bln balance sheet with $130 of it liquid, with direct premiums received of $38.4bln and a 6% auto insurance market share (#2 to State Farm at 10%). Life Insurers that get too beat up will be worth a look, but I’d give P&C focussed insurers a wide berth until the COVID-19 dust settles.

Safe trading, as always.

JCG

Follow me on Twitter; @firehorsecaper

 

 

 

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COVID-19: THE ZOO IS NOT CLOSING, EVERYTHING ELSE IS

Zoonotic pandemics were not on the list of tail-risks for investors coming into 2020. In hindsight, the timing of Chinese New Year, the world’s largest annual migration (US Thanksgiving x26, 1.3bln Chinese travel for CNY vs. 50mm Americans for Thanksgiving), could not have been worse. Closing borders, once a pandemic has started, has more limited utility.

In mid-February the global equity market was blissfully ignorant of the potential negative effects of the public health emergency, spawned by the infectious disease COVID-19, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

The Dr. Tedros led World Health Organization (WHO) has not made the global “pandemic” call yet, but this certainly could be the week. The range on unreported cases, due to the lack of testing outside of S. Korea (165k tested, 18k per day pace) is 10x (Johns Hopkins) to 38x (Lancet).

COVID-19 cases in China have crested, thankfully. Outside of China the cases have doubled >3 times in 12 days. Japan cases stand at 461 (>1,000 incl. Diamond Princess), USA is at 439, S. Korea 7134, Italy 5883 and Iran at 5823. Global cases stand at 106,200 with 3,600 dead. The epidemiological assumptions of the COVID-19 outbreak are, let’s just say, fluid. The case fatality rate (CFR) quoted most recently by the WHO is 3.4%, the range is a wide 0.68%-3.4% with S. Korea yielding the lowest CFR’s globally. Unreported cases are assumed to be less serious cases, hence it stands to reason that mortality rates will be lower for the broader group of infected sapiens (a terribly wide 7-34x more deadly than the flu, hopefully closer to 7). Spread rate, aka “r nought” est. 1.1-2.6 = 62% of contacts (approx. 2x virulent as flu). Morbidity, 20% will undoubtedly put a strain on global healthcare capacity. Many governments have been reluctant to invest sufficiently in their healthcare systems. Public health systems in less developed countries is of great concern. The cavalry is coming. The IMF has pledged $50bln in aid to assist countries dealing with COVID-19. The WHO has allocated $12bln ($8 new, $4bln re-allocated) and the USA just got approval for $8.3bln, just signed by DJT (not to mention an emergency intra-meeting 50bp rate cut by the Fed, other mopes falling in line on the follow with their short-end monetary spigots primed).

Trump signing $8.3bln COVID-19 spending bill

The potential COVID-19 effect on planet Earth is still being surmised. Listen to those with both skin in the game and involvement in the market (Andrew Brenner “The UST 30 year rate could break 1% by U.S. Sunday night) vs. the talking heads (Rick Santelli of CNBC; “Give COVID-19 to everyone, so we can get past this.”). The IMF released their estimates for China’s forward GDP estimates -0.4% to +5.6% for 2020 (not a chance, more cow-bell), and -0.1 for global GDP. More plausible estimates see the global impact to GDP at -$2.5 tln outright, just shy of 3% of global GDP, which would certainly trigger a global recession of unknown tenor. Price effects; The effect will overall likely be deflationary due to the shock to global consumption demand. There will be inflationary effects clearly with respect to the shock to the cost of production in many key sectors. The negative shock to global equity risk premia is what we have seen thus far (>$5tln), a long overdue re-tracement of multi-year multiple expansion driven by buybacks financed by a +100bln debt orgy post-GFC. The shock to labor supply will likely show itself quickly, especially in the critical global health-care sector. Child-care is another evident global bottleneck  in places like Japan where 13 million public school kids (joined by a couple million more from private school and universities) are homebound (aka self-quarantine, for a month) due to the closing of public school at the behest of PM Abe last week. Even the beleaguered cruise line industry has felt the effects, feeling the need to employ staff from the Yokohama docked Diamond Princess on the sister vessel, the Grand Princess now anchored off the California coast near San Fran (to be confirmed, but Pence, “Mr. COVID-19” has suggested this is factual/likely). The Port of Oakland has agreed to accept the vessel, it has been reported. Best wishes to all aboard for speedy resolution with next years’ resolution  to never board another cruise. Folly of the highest degree.

Financial market reaction:
Re-enforcing the repeated shortcomings of risk metrics like VaR (Value at Risk), the move we have seen in this “stress episode”, a 13% equity risk asset sell-off in 7 trading days is in many ways without precedent. As a “tail event” it would happen 0.1% of the time, running data back to 1896. Setting a confidence interval for VaR at 99% would not capture this event. 99.9% would just touch it. As Nassim Taleb would agree, it is not so much the breach as the magnitude “given breach” VaR falls down on.

The list of stress events of this magnitude is short. I have weathered them all, hence the grey hair!:
1.) Asian Contagion (1997). SE Asia currency crisis, laid at Thailand’s feet, but the MIST currencies, i.e. Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand all played a role.
2.) WTC attack (2001). Across the street at One Liberty Plaza for 9-11. 800 windows out, but no fatalities gracefully.
3.) The Big One (2008-2009). GFC (Global Financial Crisis). Epicenter in NYC, $5bln of credit (long). Indoor fireworks.
4.) Flash Crash (2010). Quite a day. Bonds had a good day, as you might imagine (re-allocation from equities, fear trade).
5.) Eurozone Crisis (2011). Sovereign debt crisis. Forced to sell 2 year Ireland paper at a yield of 14.5% (it eventually traded sub 1% before maturity).
6.) VIX event (2018). Structured, levered VIX ETF to zero. Caveat Emptor. Read the prospectus.

Last week 10 year US Treasury yields stood at 0.96% (0.70% intra-day Friday, 1st time since 1871). Long bonds (30 year UST) yield stands at sub 1.50%. Tough environment for pension fund managers, insurance companies and individuals looking to “build” a retirement income, that is for certain. The tumble in US treasury yields, by 1/2 in the case of the 10 year in less than 10 days (1.6% to sub 0.80%), has greatly increased the fragility of the rates complex (25%+ increase in duration translating to great price risk going forward).

Spread assets, like corporate bonds have experienced a massive sell-off. The US$5.3bn withdrawals from IG corp bonds this week was the heaviest on record. With the number of oil & gas credits in the HY (high-yield) market, this is the area likely to crack first with 7.9bln in outflows. CDX (spec grade credit) moved out (widened, i.e. more risky) by 42 basis points on Friday to +451 (365 recent LT avg.).

If you thought that central banks looked flat-footed in recent days, cast your eyes on OPEC. The break down in R-OPEC talks last week precipitated a 10% swoon in global oil prices, on the day (Friday). The demand destruction in the petrochemical complex is real, China alone will likely account for a 2-3 MMBRD (million barrel per day) demand shortfall versus prior run rate, and there is another 2 MMBPD in lower demand from elsewhere globally. Saudi Arabia plans to boost production is an all-out price war versus the prior expectation of a 1 MMBPD cut back in production. These are heady numbers and might bring back memories of oil with a 2 handle per barrel, as in sub $30 (well above the cost basis for most global conventional oil production). Peak Saudi production is 12 MMBPD, as a point of reference. As Stephen Innes puts it, “There Will Be Blood”. China’s “force majeure” declaration on LNG deliveries is wreaking havoc in the natural gas market with prices in the US now negative through the end of summer (-5 cents per mmbtu). Warren Buffet has reportedly pulled his funding commitment for the $9bln LNG project in Saguenay, Quebec, due to “challenges” in Canada. This, from a man who has been seen running into burning buildings, most recently with an incremental United Airlines stock purchase. Ill timed, rear view mirror, as airlines will have a $113bln revenue shortfall (projected) vs. 2019.

The only things up on the year include;

i.)VIX, largely to be observed, related tradeable instruments can be widow-makers (see VIX event above), if involved, with stops of course, trading sardines, not inventory sardines for certain. The vix stubbornly holding > 30 telegraphs 2-3% daily swings until further notice. Typical size reduction, stop widening strategies will be employed for certain. A Gatlin gun of global liquidity has been assembled, most yet to be deployed.

ii.) 30 year UST, iii.) 10 year UST, iv.) 5 year UST, v.) 2 year UST, vi.) Gold, and vii.) Palladium (20% +).

Analytics / like minds / support:

Within ibankcoin’s “Exodus” (multi-year subscriber, non-compensated post) platform there is a constantly transforming list of existing and emerging CODID-19 equity plays and the Pelican room spends a goodly portion of daily discourse on the topic of coronavirus. Few rooms are positive month-over-month through the lunacy that COVID-19 has triggered. A sampling of names currently on what I’ll call the “spec” basket include; $SPEX (Spherix, up 130% Friday past), $TOCA (Tacagen +57%), $INO (Inovia +44%), $NNVC (NanoViricides +39%) scalped short as what I view as a “suspect” name/play, akin to cannon fodder $XAIR, Beyond Air, -20% Fri.), $CBLI (Cleveland Biolabs, +25%), $ALT (Altimmune +13%), $OPK (OPKO Health, +13%), $TRIB (Trinity, +9%), $AEMD (Aethlon, +8%), $NOVN (Novan, +10%),  $BCRX (BioCryst, +7%), $VXRT (Vaxart, +7%), $CTSO (Cytosorbents, +8%), $COCP (Cocrystal, +4%), $VIR (Vir, +4%), $HAPP (Happiness Biotech, +6%), $CERS (Cerus, +4%), $VCNX (Vaccinex, flat), $APT (Alpha Pro, -13%), $LAKE (Lakeland Industries, -2% Fri.)., $CODX (CoDiagnostics, -10%), $NVAX (Novavax, -3%), and $ONEM (1Life Healthcare, -1%). All of these % moves are 1-day moves. The inter-web can provide historical and ytd numbers, but needless to say there are endless contenders afoot, many well over their skis. The real contenders will show themselves soon enough. Most will not be successful in terms of their COVID-19 aspirations,  but those with a broader platform will avoid being taken out by failure with respect to CODID-19 efficacy. Best to diversify a bit as well, hygiene, masks, test kits, vaccines, anti-viral, etc. These are all common sense considerations. With the outsized support both provided and promised for global risk markets, skew will favor the assumption of risk versus the shedding of it going forward. It is the timing of when best to ford the river that remains very much in question.

Large-caps:

$MRNA. Moderna sports a $11bln mkt cap. A novel (pardon the pun) approach. My only other current long after taking profit on $GILD calls Friday past. Moderna intends to develop a messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine for the virus. The company will use the CEPI* funding to manufacture the vaccine. Promising, as others are, especially given the high tech nature of their approach (akin to $SGMO, Sangamo one of my long term plays).

*Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI) was est. 2017 with an initial grant of $460 million by Germany, Japan, Norway and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. While I was not negative, I think Bill Gates is “moving on up” as an aside.

$AZN. AstraZenica. $124bln.

Clinical trials:

The big boys (maga big cap) are clearly safer investment vehicles and is where I have focussed my recent due diligence efforts.

1.) $GILD. Gilead’s Remdesivir is currently conducting 2 trials (one mild/moderate, one for severe), 297 patients total. First results April. A failed ebola drug that never got FDA approval. Some promise in treatment of SARS & MERS (good anti-viral activity). Worked on 1 patient in the USA, sample size as small as possible, i.e. N=1. $GILD stock has gone up 17% inside of a month, much higher than pv of an approved drug, but with a $100bln mkt cap and a suite of other drugs, seen as a lower risk play.

Varied success, but just closed out a profitable call option trade on $GILD (Gilead +5% Friday to $80) June $70 strike called sold at $13.00 (basis $3 mid Feb.). Yield 3.7% p/e 19, even after recent run-up. Will re-establish long outright or via calls on a retrace to mid 70’s on underlying.

2.) $ABBV. AbbVie Inc. is a $130bln diversified global pharmaceutical company. ABBV’s HIV drug Ritonavir (Kalentra marketing name) has just completed a 199 person trial and results are expected soon. Another untested drug in their arsenal is Erbevo. HT James Bourne on several items in this blog post.

Other:

3.) $RHHBY. Roche is a behemoth, $287bln mkt cap . Oseltamivir (Tamiflu, marketing name) is a tried and true flu drug and esp. if the L and S strains of COVID-19 stay with us on a seasonal on-going annual basis, we will require the full menu of treatments at our avail. At peak valuation (prior) during the SARS breakout a lifetime supply of Tamiflu cost $100k. Rights to Tamiflu now owned by Sanofi, $SNY ($120bln mkt cap).

4.) $JNJ, Johnson & Johnson. Near all time highs, strength to strength, $374bln mkt cap. Steady as she goes.

5.) IBB, iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF. $7bln. Less idiosyncratic risk, buy them all. One way to go. Screen holdings well.

The knife catchers stand at the ready, but never bring a knife to a gun fight. Patience is warranted. Catching the meat of the move is much more important than catching the bottom tick. Central banks must of course show a “chin up” demeanor, but they of course know their runway configuration has issues. Too much accommodation was held for too long a period and they find themselves without stores of ammunition for the battles ahead. Calls for an expansion of Fed mandate, first whispered on Friday last, sparked the valiant final hour recovery. Weekend bookies see much of that final Friday gasp getting retraced before futures open Sunday evening. Rest up, the days ahead will test us all. There will be 5% up days, there will be 5% down days.

Regards,

Professor Gibbons, CFA, FRM

Follow me @firehorsecaper

PS: Some numbers could be stale due to source and/or passage of time. In most cases meant to signal magnitude, not false precision.

https://twitter.com/firehorsecaper/status/1228444727676030977?s=20

Jan. 27, 2020: (Discord chat history). Do we need a #coronovirus tab for both longs ($ZNO $NNVC $APT $LAKE $NVAC $BCRX $ATHX $AZN, $MRNA $LLIT, etc. ) as well as shorts? (airlines $TCOM).?

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