A little-known biotech working on a COVID-19 vaccine has surged 348% 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 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 Warp Speed program.
Despite being a clinical-stage company and having no products approved for sale to date, Vaxart's market cap has surged to $898 million from $200 million, according to data from YCharts.
Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories .

A little-known biotech company that is working on developing a COVID-19 vaccine candidate has surged 449% this week after announcing a slew of news reports.

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 128% 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 it's the only oral vaccine being evaluated within the program.

The more than 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 looked 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. They 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, the firm has seen its market capitalization skyrocket to $850 million today from just under $200 million at the start of the week, according to data from YCharts.com.

Vaxart has joined a bevy 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 128% in Friday morning trades to $14.30 and are up more than 3,982% year-to-date.