A little-known biotech working on a COVID-19 vaccine has surged 304% in just 2 days — and it just said it was picked for the US government's 'Operation Warp Speed' program (VXRT)

Vaxart's stock has skyrocketed as much as 449% this week after releasing a slew of news related to its development of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
The firm said that its vaccine is "the only oral vaccine being evaluated" within the Operation War Speed program.
Despite being a clinical stage company and having no products approved for sale to date, Vaxart's market cap has surged from $200 million to $898 million, according to data from YCharts.
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A little-known biotech company that is working on developing a COVID-19 vaccine candidate surged as much as 449% this week after the company announced a slew of news.

Vaxart , a clinical-stage biotechnology company that is focused on developing vaccines administered by tablet rather than injection, said on Friday that it has been selected to participate in the US government funded Operation Warp Speed program.

The news sent Vaxart's stock higher by as much as 106% in Friday morning trades. The firm said that its oral COVID-19 vaccine candidate will participate in a non-human primate challenge study, and that its the only oral vaccine being evaluated within the program.

Operation Warp Speed is a private-public partnership started by the Federal Government to speed up the development and production of a COVID-19 vaccine, therapeutics, and related diagnostics. Companies selected by the government to participate in the program and receive funding include Merck , Moderna , Pfizer , Johnson & Johnson , and AstraZeneca .

The nearly 400% one-week stock surge was in part driven by news on Wednesday that Vaxart would be added to the broad-market Russell 3000 index, effective Monday, June 29. The news sent the stock higher by 20% as traders look to front-run the Russell 3000 rebalance set to take place next week.

Additionally, on Thursday, Vaxart surged 96% after it signed a memorandum of understanding with Attwill Medical Solutions Sterilflow. The two firms committed to enabling the large scale manufacturing and ultimate supply of Vaxart's COVID-19 vaccine candidate. The two firms hope to be able to produce "a billion or more COVID-19 vaccine doses per year," according to the news release.

All in all, based on Friday morning trades, Vaxart is set to end the week higher by 328%. The firm has seen its market capitalization skyrocket from just under $200 million at the start of the week to $850 million today, according to data from YCharts.com.

Vaxart has joined a slew of small-cap biotechnology companies that have skyrocketed after announcing plans to develop a COVID-19 vaccine candidate, like Sorrento Therapeutics.

Shares of Vaxart traded up as much as 106% in Friday morning trades to $12.90 and are up more than 3,000% year-to-date.