Investors may choose to avoid Vaxart (NASDAQ:VXRT) presently despite its interesting business model. Reasons such as the binary nature of biotech investing as well as time for commercialization are some of the factors that can be considered as concerns. Analysts view the stock as much of a gamble and Covid-19 exemplifies that risk.
The company sells oral vaccines in tablet form and harnesses its VAAST platform for delivering two payloads against a virus. The patient taking its pill gets protein antigen and immune booster as well.
Vaxart has a pipeline of four prophylactic vaccines, of which one is kept for Covid-19 and it has completed Phase 1 of the Clinical Trial process. The company’s confidence in the pill stems from its poll of 1500 adults, who said they will prefer taking a pill then an injection. The company’s tablet is in the early stages of Phase 2 trials and it may succeed or fail.
The reason for skepticism is that Biotech companies generally burn a large amount of cash in R&D as well as development hoping that commercialization would lead to lead to a pot of gold on the other side.
The company, which recorded a net loss of $16 million in quarter one ended the quarter with $177.3 million in cash and liquidity. The numbers suggest it may lose $80 million this year.
VXRT stock is up by 0.76% to $8.64 in the morning session on Wednesday. The stock has gained 18% in the past month and 37% year-to-date.
