Vaxart Wins BARDA Grant for Oral Covid 19 Vaccine Candidate Study
Clinical stage biotechnology company, Vaxart, Inc. (Nasdaq: VXRT), has been awarded $9.27 million by the United States Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to fund preparation for a 10,000 subject Phase 2b clinical study evaluating Vaxart’s oral pill XBB COVID-19 vaccine candidate against an approved mRNA vaccine comparator.
Dr. Michael Finney, Vaxart’s Interim Chief Executive Officer, commented, “We are very honored to receive this BARDA award, which will support the innovative approach of our oral pill vaccine platform. We believe our oral pill vaccine platform may ultimately hold the promise of revolutionizing how we fight pandemics and how we vaccinate against several infectious diseases. Our team is very excited about this contract, which allows us to prepare to move forward with our oral COVID vaccine program, together with BARDA.”
Highlights
Vaxart’s grant has been awarded as part of BARDA’s Project NextGen, a $5 billion initiative by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to develop new, innovative vaccines and therapeutics that provide broader and more durable protection against COVID-19 than the first generation COVID vaccines and medicines.
Dr. James F. Cummings, Vaxart’s Chief Medical Officer stated that Vaxart’s thermostable pill vaccine offers the chance to overcome needle-phobia, a documented obstacle to vaccination, and offers the potential to make it easier to vaccinate more people faster than with traditional injected vaccines.
Vaxart’s oral pill vaccine has demonstrated the ability to be cross-reactive against all tested SARS-CoV-2 variants and to trigger long-lasting immune responses, potentially offering broader, longer protection than the current first-generation vaccines.
About Vaxart
Vaxart is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing a range of oral recombinant vaccines based on its proprietary delivery platform. Vaxart vaccines are designed to be administered using pills that can be stored and shipped without refrigeration and eliminate the risk of needle-stick injury. Vaxart believes that its proprietary pill vaccine delivery platform is suitable to deliver recombinant vaccines, positioning the company to develop oral versions of currently marketed vaccines and to design recombinant vaccines for new indications. Vaxart’s development programs currently include pill vaccines designed to protect against coronavirus, norovirus, seasonal influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), as well as a therapeutic vaccine for human papillomavirus (HPV), Vaxart’s first immune-oncology indication. Vaxart has filed broad domestic and international patent applications covering its proprietary technology and creations for oral vaccination using adenovirus and TLR3 agonists.
