Forget Moderna, Vaxart Stock Is The Better Bet

The global death toll topped 500,000 from coronavirus on Sunday. The total number of confirmed cases is over 10 million. COVID-19 continues to spread and the only way to stop it is with a vaccine. We at Insider Financial have been ahead of the curve covering the best coronavirus stocks for our subscribers. We had our subscribers in Cytodyn in February, Inovio in March, and Moderna at $21 a share. However, one name that we missed and we are focused on now is Vaxart stock. Vaxart Stock Daily ChartNow many are looking at the chart above and think that they have missed the boat. The fact is many had asked the same question when Moderna was at $21 after just doubling. As you can see, there were still big gains to be had. We think the same is true for Vaxart stock. NASDAQ:MRNA Daily Chart

About Vaxart Stock

First up, here's a little background info for those that aren't familiar with Vaxart stock. Vaxart is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing oral tablet vaccines designed to generate mucosal and systemic immune responses that protect against a wide range of infectious diseases and have the potential to provide sterilizing immunity for diseases such as COVID-19. Vaxart believes that a room temperature stable tablet vaccine is easier to distribute, store and administer than injectable vaccines and may provide significantly faster response to a pandemic than injectable vaccines, enabling a greater portion of the population to be protected. Vaxart’s development programs include oral tablet vaccines that are designed to protect against coronavirus, norovirus, seasonal influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), as well as a therapeutic vaccine for human papillomavirus (HPV). For more information, please visit www.vaxart.com.[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eikfArKjQ50&feature=emb_title[/embed]

1 Billion COVID-19 Vaccine Doses Minimum

Vaxart stock got moving last week after announcing a deal with Attwill Medical Solutions Sterilflow, LP affirming the parties’ intent to establish AMS as a resource for lyophilization development and large scale manufacturing including tableting and enteric coating for Vaxart’s oral COVID-19 vaccine. AMS will be assigning dedicated resources and equipment for the scale-up and commercial production of the vaccine upon entering a formal agreement. Andrei Floroiu, CEO of Vaxart Inc, said:

“We believe AMS’ experience coupled with its ability to manufacture a billion or more doses per year would be a beneficial addition to our group of CDMO partners and enable the large scale manufacturing and ultimate supply of our COVID-19 vaccine for the US, Europe and other countries in need. We believe our oral vaccines, generated on our proven platform, have the potential to offer superior protection against airborne viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 by triggering both mucosal and systemic immunity while being administered by a room temperature-stable tablet, an enormous logistical advantage in large vaccination campaigns.”

Operating Warp Speed

Operation Warp Speed is a new national program aiming to provide substantial quantities of a safe, effective vaccine for Americans by January 2021. The program originally began when the White House selected 5 candidates in early June. They included candidates from Moderna, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, and Pfizer. Joining this prestigious list is now Vaxart stock with its oral COVID-19 vaccine. Vaxart will participate in a non-human primate (NHP) challenge study. The study is designed to demonstrate the efficacy of Vaxart’s oral COVID-19 vaccine candidate. Andrei Floroiu, Chief Executive Officer of Vaxart Inc, said:

“We are very pleased to be one of the few companies selected by Operation Warp Speed, and that ours is the only oral vaccine being evaluated. SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, is primarily transmitted by viral particles that enter through the mucosa - nose, mouth, or eyes - strongly suggesting that mucosal immunity could serve as the first line of defense. In addition, our vaccine is a room temperature-stable tablet, an enormous logistical advantage in large vaccination campaigns.”

Equity Raise Likely

With $29 million in cash on the balance sheet, Vaxart will most likely do an equity raise sooner rather than later. Smart biotech CEOs usually use the share price increase to raise money at a higher valuation. We urge followers to not be discouraged as it takes money to bring a vaccine to market. Any sell-off from an equity raise should be viewed as a discount entry opportunity.

Bottom Line

Vaxart is the ONLY company in Operation Warp Speed with an oral, room-temperature-stable tablet. This is huge and for those thinking that Vaxart stock has run too far and too fast, we say to focus on market capitalization. Vaxart has a market cap of only $464 million compared to Moderna's $24 billion market cap, or Novovax's $4.8 billion market cap. If Vaxart is successful with its oral vaccine, the company already has 1 billion dose production lined up. To put that in perspective, what will countries pay for an easy-to-administer oral vaccine? $1 per dose? $10 per dose? $100 per dose? $1000 per dose? Do the math and Vaxart stock is a bargain basement opportunity at current levels.Good luck to all (except the shorts)!

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Disclosure: We have no position in NASDAQ:VXRT or any of the securities mentioned. We wrote this article ourselves and it expresses our own opinions. We are not receiving compensation for it. We have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.Image by Jukka Niittymaa from Pixabay