Vaxart Announces First Quarter 2020 Financial Results and Provides Corporate Update
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May 12, 2020 16:01 ET | Source: Vaxart, Inc.
Lead Vaccine Candidates for COVID-19 are Highly Immunogenic in Preclinical Testing
COVID-19 Phase 1 Clinical Study Planned for 2H20
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., May 12, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vaxart, Inc. (“Vaxart” or the “Company”), a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing oral recombinant vaccines that are administered by tablet rather than by injection, today announced financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2020 and provided a corporate update.
“In January we pivoted to COVID-19, and we are now on track to start a first Phase 1 study in the second half of this year with our oral tablet vaccine,” said Wouter Latour, MD, chief executive officer of Vaxart. “We are developing a state-of-the-art gene-based vaccine utilizing our proprietary vector platform, and the lead candidate vaccines performed well in preclinical testing, generating very high levels of antibodies.”
“For COVID-19, a key challenge will be to manufacture sufficient vaccine and efficiently vaccinate the millions at risk, and ultimately the entire population. Our vaccines are administered orally using a room temperature-stable tablet, an enormous logistical advantage over injectable vaccines in large vaccination campaigns. The bulk vaccine does not require sterile fill and finish, a significant bottleneck for injectable vaccines, but can be tableted very efficiently using high throughput industrial tableting equipment.”
Corporate Highlights:
In preclinical testing, the Company’s lead vaccine candidates generated robust anti-SARS CoV-2 antibodies in all tested animals after both the first and second dose, with a clear boosting effect after the second dose. Antibody responses in all vaccinated groups were statistically significant (p<0.002), with median ELISA IgG antibody titers above 10,000 compared to a median titer of 1 in the untreated controls, a larger than 10,000 fold increase.
The manufacturing collaboration with Emergent BioSolutions is progressing well and, provided Vaxart elects to proceed, Emergent is on schedule to produce bulk cGMP vaccine in time for initiation of a Phase 1 clinical study during the second half of 2020.
The Universal Influenza vaccine collaboration with Janssen remains on schedule to provide results by mid-2020.
The Company continues to pursue strategic, financial and public-private partnerships to advance its development candidates, including its coronavirus vaccine candidates, norovirus and seasonal influenza vaccine programs.
Financial Results for the Three Months Ended March 31, 2020
Vaxart reported a net loss of $1.3 million for the first quarter of both 2020 and 2019. Net loss per share was $0.02 in 2020 compared to $0.18 in 2019 due to an increase in the number of shares outstanding.
Vaxart ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $29.9 million compared to $13.5 million at December 31, 2019. The increase was primarily due to $9.2 million of net proceeds raised in a registered direct offering of common stock and warrants and $10.3 million from the exercise of common stock warrants, partially offset by $3.2 million of cash used in operations.
Revenue for the quarter was $2.9 million compared to $5.4 million in the first quarter of 2019. The $2.5 million decrease was principally due to the loss of royalty revenue of $0.7 million for Relenza following the expiration of the patent and a decrease of $1.9 million in royalty revenue for Inavir, partly due to higher sales in the three months ended December 31, 2019.
Research and development expenses were $1.5 million for the quarter compared to $3.8 million for the first quarter of 2019. The decrease was mainly due to a reduction in personnel costs after we ceased internal manufacturing as part of our December 2019 restructuring and a reduction in expenditure on our norovirus vaccine candidate.
General and administrative expenses were $2.0 million for the quarter, substantially unchanged from the first quarter of 2019.
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