VBI Vaccines Has Speculative Upside From Current Price Levels

Summary

• VBI Vaccines has a hepatitis B vaccine with 2 successful Phase 3 trials that could hit the market late next year.
• VBI is well funded for now after 2 recent equity offerings and the establishment of a $50 million credit facility.
• VBI presents speculative upside if it can successfully develop other assets from its pipeline, including a coronavirus vaccine.

VBI Vaccines (VBIV) is an interesting small cap biopharma that is currently developing multiple vaccines and therapeutics to target several viruses and even one type of cancer. I am covering VBI as a part of my series this month on companies with CMV related vaccines or testing solutions since June is CMV Awareness Month. For more information on CMV itself or the market opportunity I believe it presents, you can check out the blog post I published to kick off the series. I presently own a small position in VBI, and in this article, I will discuss why I believe the company merits having a spot in the speculative portion of my portfolio.

Sci-B-Vac Should Start Generating Revenue Late Next Year

Sci-B-Vac, if approved, would be the only trivalent hepatitis B vaccine, meaning it operates through 3 somewhat different means. In theory at least, this helps provide a broader level of protection from the disease. Sci-B-Vac was tested in its clinical trials as a 3-dose regimen, but it also showed pretty good efficacy after just 2 doses. Prior to the data readout from one of VBI’s Phase 3 trials last year, investors were hoping the data would support Sci-B-Vac as a 2-dose regimen for all patient populations. Unfortunately, the data didn’t fully bear that out, and VBI’s stock sold off. The biggest problem this likely causes is in competitiveness with another recently approved Hepatitis B vaccine, Heplisav-B. Heplisav-B, though, received 2 CRLs before eventually being granted approval due to safety issues, so Sci-B-Vac’s superior safety profile should help it still carve out a niche in the market.

Sci-B-Vac is already approved in Israel, but there hasn’t been any meaningful revenue contribution to VBI from sales in Israel to date. VBI expects to start submitting regulatory applications in the US, Canada, and Europe starting the

Analyst’s Disclosure:I am/we are long VBIV. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

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