Opiant Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:OPNT) Is In The Right Place At The Right Time

Towards the end of last week, Opiant Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:OPNT) picked up some real upside momentum.The company had been trading in and around $28 a share at the start of play on Wednesday but, by mid-afternoon on Thursday, was up at $45 a piece.That's a more than 60% run. OPNT Daily ChartA look at the wires reveals nothing in terms of fundamental advance or operational development and the company hasn’t filed anything with the SEC since this 8K, relating to a share selling transaction with Cantor Fitzgerald, hit press on October 13.So why the gains, and what's next?Let's take a look.This is a company that we keep coming back to ere at Insider Financial and for good reason – it's up more than 400% over the last six months and close to 550% year to date. We have highlighted it as being one to keep an eye on and a potential winner at various points along this rise in value, having initially put it on the radar of our readers back in July, when Opiant shares went for in and around $5 a piece.The company is operating in the opioid space (as its name alludes to) and, specifically, it's developing a portfolio of assets that are targeting the opioid epidemic that's crippling large portions of the US economy right now.This epidemic hit crisis levels (officially) last week, when Donald Trump weighed in on the situation and declared opioid abuse as being a National Crisis and vowed to do something about it.And this is why the company ran as it did – that 'something about it' falls neatly in line with Opiant's plans for expansion and future growth. The company has already developed and is commercializing a nasal spray formulation of Narcan, which is a drug designed to revive people who have overdosed on opioids. Narcan is used all over the US and it's being used thousands of times daily to literally save lives, according to this NY Times article from last year.It's development pipeline, however, is equally as interesting. Opiant announced a collaboration with a company called Titan Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTNP) earlier this month that will see the two team up on a long-acting treatment that warrants opioids ineffective in patients, removing the risk of relapse post-recovery. We actually covered this deal at the end of last week, with Titan running up parallel to Opiant on the news.There's also a heroin vaccine in the pipeline – another asset with billion-dollar potential if the company can realize its goal and get it on shelves.Getting back to the question at hand, then, why is the stock running?For us, it's all about timing and exposure. Opiant is in the right place at the right time and is benefitting as a direct result of its efforts to tackle a national problem that the President wants tackling hard and fast. The company's CEO is grabbing the opportunity for limelight coverage and is appearing on many of the major news media outlets to discuss Opiant's pipeline and when you're using words like heroin vaccine on these platforms attracting speculative shareholder attention isn’t too difficult a task.Where do things go from here?Opiant has corrected from the above-discussed highs and currently trades for around $36 a share. So long as the company can maintain its presence as one of the poster children entities of the national war on opioids, there looks to be no reason why it can't close out the gap and continue towards $50 near term.Keep in mind that the majority of the volume right now is speculative inflow and we're going to need to see some operational advance soon in order to justify the run. With that said, there's plenty of opportunity to jump in before things get down to the wire.Check out our previous coverage of this one here.We will be updating our subscribers as soon as we know more. For the latest updates on OPNT, sign up below!Image courtesy of liz west via FlickrDisclosure: We have no position in OPNT and have not been compensated for this article.