The vaccine industry is not one to be counted out, even as more and more Americans become inoculated against the novel coronavirus. There are still swaths of U.S. citizens that need to be vaccinated, as well as those abroad; even those who have already gotten their shots could need boosters as the mutative virus seeks to subvert vaccines. Investors are wise to this knowledge, and as such, they are still hunting down vaccine plays with high upward potential. Vaxart (NASDAQ:VXRT) is revealing itself to be one of these today, and VXRT stock is on the rise in response.
California-based Vaxart has been a play with some heft to it in the last year; it is one of the few small-cap biotech plays with legitimate potential as a Covid vaccine developer. The company doesn’t have a product on the market just yet. But, some news today suggests it could be getting a needle-free vaccine to the unvaccinated soon.
VXRT Stocks Gains as FDA Grants New Approval to Covid Vaccine
A press release from the company today is making investors bullish on the company’s new orally administered vaccine. The company says its Investigational New Drug application is being cleared today by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). With this new approval, the company will be able to move forward with Phase Two testing of the vaccine going into the second half of 2021.
The tablet vaccine is the only product by the company the utilize only S-proteins; most of the company’s products use S- and N-proteins. CSO Sean Tucker says the company is pushing this particular vaccine because clinical data suggests the S-only vaccine “produced much higher serum antibodies than the one expressing both S and N proteins.”
The news today is lifting VXRT stock up. In the opening minutes of trading, VXRT is already up over 8%. Trading volume has already surpassed the daily average; over 14.6 million shares of VXRT are trading so far, against the stock’s average volume of 12.7 million.
On the date of publication, Brenden Rearick did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
