Altimmune has announced a collaboration with the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) for development of an intranasal COVID-19 vaccine. Six laboratories at UAB are expected to work on the single dose vaccine, called AdCOVID, to complete immunogenicity and pre-clinical studies with the goal of initiating a Phase 1 clinical trial in the third quarter of 2020.
In March 2019, Altimmune announced that an extension of a Phase 2 study found that its NasoVAX intranasal influenza vaccine continued to provide protection against the flu for over a year following vaccination. AdCOVID is being developed using the same technology as that vaccine, the company said. Altimmune is also developing an intranasal anthrax vaccine called NasoShield under contract with the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).
Altimmune President and CEO Vipin K. Garg commented, “It is critical that the biotechnology industry and academic institutions work together to prevent the further spread of COVID-19, and UAB is an ideal partner to support us in this effort. UAB has an impressive track record of cutting-edge research in virology and immunology, as well as in the clinical development of vaccines. In fact, Altimmune was founded through a technology license from UAB in 1997. We are excited to collaborate with UAB in our efforts and look forward to addressing this crisis together.”
UAB Department of Microbiology Chair Frances E. Lund said, “We are eager to collaborate with Altimmune on this important project. The expertise and infrastructure at UAB will be invaluable to the rapid progression of this vaccine into clinical studies. This project will be our highest priority for the group in the next few months as the goal is to get the data to Altimmune as rapidly as possible, so that they will use the information gained from the preclinical study to design their clinical trial in people.”
Read the Altimmune press release.
