Covid winners

John Fitzgerald Kennedy once said: “In Chinese, the word crisis is made up of two characters. One represents danger. The other represents opportunity. ». Of course, we all know the dangers of COVID-19, but what are the opportunities? Clearly, the big winners in this pandemic are the pharmaceutical companies. In Switzerland, we have two huge pharmaceutical companies, but we also have smaller companies that are benefiting from the additional revenue generated by COVID-19.

Roche, for example, has developed an antibody diagnostic system, which makes it possible to know reliably whether an individual has already been affected by the coronavirus. This most likely implies that he or she is now immune. The demand for this kind of diagnosis is exploding worldwide, and Roche is unable to produce enough of it.

Lonza, for its part, has announced a partnership with the American company Moderna to manufacture a vaccine against the coronavirus. Although we are only at the very beginning of the process at this stage, Lonza estimates that it will eventually be able to produce a billion vaccines a year. The partnership has been signed for a 10-year term.