Altimmune And The University Of Alabama At Birmingham To Collaborate On Development Of Single-Dose, Intranasal COVID-19 Vaccine

Altimmune, Inc., announced that it is launching a collaboration with the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) on the development of its single-dose, intranasal COVID-19 vaccine, named AdCOVID.

In response to the urgent demand posed by the COVID-19 global pandemic, Altimmune has created a COVID-19 vaccine candidate and is currently preparing for immunogenicity studies and manufacture of Phase 1 clinical trial material. Initially, Altimmune will work with UAB investigators on preclinical animal studies and characterization of the vaccine immunogenicity with the goal of enabling a Phase 1 trial in Q3 of this year. Altimmune has significant experience in the development of intranasal vaccines for respiratory pathogens, including NasoVAX, a seasonal and pandemic influenza vaccine candidate, and NasoShield, a vaccine candidate for inhalation anthrax. NasoShield is being developed under a $133.7 million contract with Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).

“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,” said Vipin K. Garg, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer. “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.”

“We are eager to collaborate with Altimmune on this important project,” said Frances E. Lund, the Charles H. McCauley Professor and Chair for the UAB Department of Microbiology. “The expertise and infrastructure at UAB will be invaluable to the rapid progression of this vaccine into clinical studies,” she added.

Six UAB labs will work together on this urgent collaboration with Altimmune. “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,” Lund said.

UAB also has extensive experience in conducting clinical studies of vaccines and has participated in studies sponsored by the Vaccine Evaluation and Trial Unit, part of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health.

AdCOVID is a single-dose, intranasal vaccine candidate designed to protect against COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. By utilizing the Company’s proprietary intranasal vaccine technology, it is expected that AdCOVID has the potential to activate multiple arms of the immune system as shown in a recent Phase 2 clinical study with NasoVAX, an influenza vaccine candidate based on the same platform technology. That study showed potent stimulation of mucosal and cellular immune responses in addition to a strong serum antibody response. In addition, our platform vaccines (NasoVAX and NasoShield) have shown an excellent stability profile and, when combined with the simple intranasal route of administration, may allow for efficient and inexpensive distribution of the vaccine.