looking good Tekmira Pharmaceutical Corp. is leading Ebola-related drug stocks as investors wager the Canadian company’s therapy is among the most promising to combat the strain of the outbreak that’s sweeping West Africa.
Shares of the Burnaby, British Columbia-based company, which is developing its treatment under a $140 million contract with the U.S. Defense Department, have advanced 113 percent this year, the most among competitors including Sarepta Therapeutics Inc. and BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Tekmira is able to quickly engineer therapies “that can interrupt the life cycle of Ebola virus, particularly the one that’s in West Africa,” saidJason Kolbert, an analyst with Maxim Group LLC in New York. “That’s pretty significant.”