Vaxart (NASDAQ:VXRT), a clinical-stage biotech company, has made advances in developing a multivariant oral COVID-19 vaccine candidate. However, given that the vaccine candidate is still undergoing Phase I and Phase 2 clinical trials at a time when VXRT’s peers have long ago launched their vaccines, is VXRT late too late to the party? Is its stock a risky bet? Read on.Biotechnology company Vaxart, Inc. (VXRT) develops oral recombinant protein vaccines based on its proprietary oral vaccine platform. The price of its shares has risen 129.5% over the past year on investors’ optimism over the prospects of the company’s COVID-19 vaccine, VXA-CoV2-1.
However, VXRT’s stock price has tumbled 24.5% over the past three months. In fact, the stock closed yesterday’s trading session at $6.51, 73.9% below its $24.90 52-week high.
Although the company’s room-temperature stable, tablet-based COVID-19 vaccine development has helped its shares soar to a $24.90 high in February, the vaccine candidate is still in its clinical trial phase. Also, VXRT’s norovirus vaccine has yet to advance to a Phase 2 challenge study and it could be some time before there are definitive results on its efficacy. Against this backdrop, VXRT’s high valuation doesn’t look reasonable. So, we think the stock could witness a retreat in the near term.