Farmas USA

Altimmune teams up with Lonza to supply intranasal COVID-19 vaccine candidate

• Altimmune (NASDAQ:ALT) jumps 13% premarket after entering into an agreement with Lonza for the manufacturing of AdCOVID, company's next-generation, single-dose intranasal vaccine candidate for COVID-19.
• AdCOVID is expected to provide durable immunity of up to a year or more following a single dose and to have an excellent tolerability and stability profile.
• AdCOVID is expected to be shipped without cold chain and permit common refrigerated storage conditions without the need for specialized freezer storage.
• The company plans to commence a clinical study of AdCOVID in Q4, with a data readout anticipated in Q1 2021.
• Yesterday, ALT reported its consensus beating Q3, with a revenue increase of 359.4% to $2.94M.
• Recently, the company announced positive preclinical results which shows intranasal administration of AdCOVID stimulated a strong induction of neutralizing antibodies in serum and a CD8+ killer T cell response focused in the lungs of vaccinated mice.
• AdCOVID also stimulated a robust mucosal IgA antibody response in the respiratory tract.
• Also, ALT and UAB have expanded their collaboration to include additional preclinical studies of AdCOVID in support of further development for AdCOVID.
• The company also initiated a collaboration with Saint Louis University and has inked agreement with DynPort Vaccine Company for AdCOVID.
• “2020 has been a transformational year for Altimmune as our pipeline continues to mature and we progress five novel investigational candidates into clinical development,” said Vipin K. Garg, Ph.D., President and CEO.