Vaxylove
$VXRT
Steve Lo Report Card
The grades are in after 2.5+ years.
1. Shareholder Value: F
Shareholder value has declined 65% under his watch. This is ultimately the most important measure of a CEO's performance.
2. Dilution: C
Lo deserves credit for the Lincoln Park Capital financing, the resumption of the BARDA program following the stop-work order, and the additional $29 million from BARDA. And no r/s, so far.
Those are meaningful accomplishments and should be acknowledged. However, they don't erase the damage caused by delisting, which fundamentally altered market liquidity, institutional eligibility, and shareholder value.
3. Clinical Execution: Successful and timely achievement of clinical trial milestones.
Milestones?
We don’t know what they are.
Successful? To be determined.
Timely? F.
Shareholders need more than promising presentations and optimistic projections. We need measurable progress, completed milestones, and timelines that management can consistently meet.
We need clear answers about the norovirus program, including whether the company has developed a new construct that adequately addresses GII.17.
We also need clarity on the influenza program, its development timeline, and the company's overall clinical priorities.
Clinical development is difficult, and setbacks happen. But repeated delays, limited visibility, and uncertainty about development timelines make it difficult for shareholders to evaluate management's performance.
Or is this uncertainty by design, so shareholders don’t have the information to properly weigh management’s performance?
4. Executive Compensation: Compensation tied to independently measurable performance and tangible results.
Grade: F
Lo received a 35% higher compensation package in 2025 for a 44% decline in the stock in 2024 since he took over.
Outrageous.
Compensation should reflect performance, not simply the passage of time or continued occupancy of the CEO's office.
Stock awards and options do not automatically create alignment with shareholders, particularly when they are awarded at depressed stock prices.
Management compensation should be tied to independently measurable clinical, financial, operational, and shareholder-value milestones.
5. Transparency: Clear, honest, and timely communication regarding clinical setbacks, financing needs, business strategy, and development milestones.
Grade: D
To their credit, management is making an effort with the shareholder Fireside Chats. However, the current approach leaves much to be desired:
1. No follow-up questions during calls or Fireside Chats.
2. Cherry-picking shareholder questions.
3. Lo discussing the company's timeline to market with the media without telling shareholders.
4. No clear explanation of the strategy and milestones required to regain Nasdaq listing compliance.
5. No plan whatsoever communicated to shareholders, other than focusing on the data.
6. Private conversations with select shareholders.
All of these contribute to a disconnect between management and retail.
Shareholders should not have to piece together the company's strategy from interviews, conferences, regulatory filings, and carefully selected questions during Fireside Chats.
Transparency means proactively communicating difficult information, not simply providing updates when management chooses.
6. Leadership and Accountability: Taking ownership of decisions and accepting responsibility for results.
Grade: F
Shareholders expect a CEO who acknowledges mistakes, explains strategic decisions, takes responsibility for setbacks, and demonstrates a credible plan for moving the company forward.
Leadership is not just about presenting the company's potential. It is about delivering results.
Overall grade? Draw your own conclusions.
Shareholders should demand the following:
1. An independent evaluation of leadership.
2. A credible plan for shareholder value creation.
3. Honest and timely communication.
4. Measurable clinical milestones.
5. Compensation tied to results.
6. Greater shareholder engagement.
7. Stronger board oversight.
Bottom Line
Steve Lo inherited Vaxart with significant challenges, and it’s not fair to attribute every past mistake or controversial decision to him.
However, that cannot become an excuse for the lack of shareholder returns, continued uncertainty, and inadequate communication.
The most important question:
Are we better off today than we were when Lo took over?
The answer: Shareholders have experienced a 65% decline in the company's stock, while Lo's compensation increased 35%:
Lo compensation 2024: $2,085,768
Lo compensation 2025: $2,810,918
Contrast his pay increase with declining shareholder value:
• March 18, 2024 (day he began) to year-end 2024: 44% decline.
• 2025: 47% decline.
• Overall March 18, 2024 to Nov. 2, 2026: 65% decline.
Lo must be held accountable for the company's performance under his leadership. Shareholders tried to hold him accountable at the 2026 Annual Meeting, where he had 49.7% of votes withheld, EVEN WITHOUT the Gold Cards, which would have easily put him over 50% withheld.
When Nasdaq suspended Vaxart on July 8, 2025, the BARDA award was still valued at $460.7 million.
Research indicates that no other publicly traded biotechnology company has ever received a government award of that magnitude and subsequently lost its Nasdaq listing.
The Board got greedy with financial engineering, and it backfired. And now we have five of those members still on the Board, and we’re trading on OTC where it seems as though catalysts have no impact, although the jury is still out for a large catalyst.
After Lo’s 2.5 years at the helm, we have nothing to show for our investment other than continued losses, delisting, no institutional interest, two failed reverse split proposals, and uncertainty about the company's path forward.
If Lo doesn’t deliver by the Annual Meeting, he and a couple members of the Board likely won’t have the votes. And this time, a shareholder won’t be able to save Lo’s job by writing the framework for the CSG settlement, thus paving the way for the Board to pay for the Gold Cards to go away.
Lo could have likely raised significantly funds on June 13, 2024 if he would’ve let us run. But instead, he put us in a hole with minimum leverage in the Dynavax deal, as we had to sell our most advanced asset, a vaccine that’s cross-reactive to all coronaviruses, including the common cold, and might also work therapeutically for Long Covid.
And this is the guy who’s going to take us to the promised land?
In what world does he still have his job?
We deserve better.
We deserve results.
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