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| Photo showing Molnupiravir COVID-19 pills developed by Merck. Yonhap |
By Kim Yoo-chul
The focus of the stock market is currently on which sectors and shares will become beneficiaries of toughened social-distancing measures expected to be announced by Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum following the rapid spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in addition to the resurgent Delta variant.
But if coronavirus vaccines and COVID-19 test kit shares made headlines last year, the focus of the stock market's attention during the remainder of the year and in 2022 will be stocks related to the development of a COVID-19 pill, according to market analysts.
The rationale is that major biotech companies are making visible progress in developing highly-effective drugs that can treat COVID-19.
In Korea, various clinical trials are underway at leading biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies including SK Bioscience, Samsung Biologics and Ildong Pharmaceutical.
"Simply put, the anti-COVID-19 pill market will expand as investors are betting on the development status of coronavirus pills. COVID-19 test kit companies will experience ups and downs in terms of stock price moves, meaning investors are reacting to them based on day-to-day trading," a senior fund manager at a U.S.-based investment bank in Seoul said Wednesday.
On the main KOSPI exchange, Ildong Pharmaceutical shares surged 26.01 percent after rising by the daily limit high of 30 percent on Wednesday. Its shares, which ended at 16,600 won Dec. 6, closed at 32,700 won Wednesday, according to data provided by the Korea Exchange (KRX). The stock price rose after investor sentiment was buoyed by comments made by its executive who said the company plans to finish clinical trials of its COVID-19 pill by February next year.
Also, Ildong said it recently struck a partnership with AstraZeneca for the development of various types of treatments.
"More Korean companies are working on antiviral pills for COVID-19 and its variants such as Omicron, Delta or others, to add to their money-making COVID portfolios. We have to be aware of the fact that the market for COVID prevention and possible treatments is just huge," a senior fund manager said asking not to be identified as he wasn't authorized to officially speak to the media.
Unlike Ildong, shares of Seegene, the country's leading COVID-19 test kit maker, fell by 0.29 percent to end at 67,900 won, Wednesday. On Dec. 6, Seegene closed at 64,500 won, according to KRX data.
The government has been proud to highlight its effective control of the spread of COVID-19, while being hesitant to confirm a possible return to strengthened quarantine measures, mindful of losing the support of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which have been hit hard by the pandemic.
Details of a new round of the government's social-distancing measures are set to be announced Friday by the prime minister in a nationally-televised news conference.
