As monkeypox quickly spreads, a handful of biotechs spring to action

At the beginning of the week, many people hadn’t ever heard of monkeypox. By Friday, that all changed — and now a handful of biotech companies are reaping the benefits.

Emergent Biosolutions’ $EBS stock jumped more than 10% on Friday, four days after the company plumped down $225 million for the rights to Chimerix’s smallpox vaccine. Chimerix’s stock $CMRX was up more than 3.8% on Friday. And Bavarian Nordic $BVNRY — which closed a $119 million deal with BARDA to provide the US government with freeze-dried doses of the Jynneos vaccine — was up nearly 2.5%.