'Covid is not going away': Virologist fund manager Dr Ogden on coronavirus, healthcare valuations and biotech opportunities

Single vaccine 'not enough' to treat patients

The coronavirus pandemic has changed how the world's healthcare systems and biotechnology companies will operate irrevocably as Covid-19 "isn’t going to go away", according to virologist and manager of the AUS$335m Platinum International Healthcare fund Dr Bianca Ogden.

Ogden, who obtained a PhD in virology, and previously worked as a scientist for Johnson & Johnson and Novartis before launching the portfolio in 2003, said comparisons can be made between the Covid-19 strain of the coronavirus and HIV, in that it cannot be eradicated via a single vaccine. "When you look at the family of coronaviruses, they don't tend to go away. They were compared relatively early on to the HIV virus; it is a different family, but similarly it is something we will have to live with, and it means we will have to adjust how we live," she explained. "Coronaviruses have b...