Wedbush Reiterates Outperform Rating, $4 PT on Novavox on New Avian Influenza Reports

In a report published Friday, Wedbush analyst Gregory R. Wade reiterated an Outperform rating and $4.00 price target on Novavox

. In the report, Wade noted, “From China, there have been recent reports of a lethal new avian influenza virus (H7N9) that has reportedly killed six people, and seriously sickened several others. The New York Times is also reporting that the CDC is beginning work to generate a strain of virus that may, through egg-based culture methods, generate a vaccine. Recall that NVAX's technology avoids the need to generate a new virus. Rather, it incorporates the genetic material for the corresponding viral antigens into its expression system. This system avoids the risks of egg-based manufacturing, such as expression levels in eggs, as the NVAX manufacturing system robustly generates high volumes of vaccine, and NVAX's techniques can potentially produce new vaccines much more rapidly (in weeks) than egg-based systems that can take about 6 months.” Novavax closed on Thursday at $2.36.