Health and Healthcare

Intranasal COVID-19 Vaccine Shows Very Promising Preclinical Results

Chris Lange

Published: March 15, 2021 9:57 am

Altimmune Inc. (NASDAQ: ALT) is making headway in the fight against COVID-19 after the firm announced additional preclinical data in regards to its single-dose intranasal vaccine candidate, AdCOVID. Overall the data were very promising, especially for an intranasal vaccine.

The preclinical studies were conducted at Altimmune’s collaborating institutions, the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and Saint Louis University.

Ultimately, the data demonstrated that a single intranasal dose of AdCOVID provided 100% protection against a lethal challenge from the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

UAB previously demonstrated that serum IgG and respiratory mucosal IgA titers in mice treated with AdCOVID were maintained for at least six months following a single intranasal vaccination and that memory B cells specific for spike antigen were found in the lymph nodes when assessed 5.5 months post-vaccination. Along with this, these results showed that a single vaccination with AdCOVID in preclinical models led to a long-lived systemic and mucosal immune response against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which is important for sustained protection from the disease.

Management noted the complete protection observed in a stringent challenge model combined with inhibition of viral replication and persistent serum and mucosal antibody responses has not been previously demonstrated in preclinical studies for a COVID-19 vaccine candidate and supports its view of AdCOVID as a leading COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

Excluding Monday’s move, Altimmune stock had outperformed the broad markets with a gain of about 408% in the past 52 weeks. The stock was up closer to 49% year to date.

Altimmune stock traded at $16.73 on Monday, in a 52-week range of $2.55 to $35.10. The consensus price target is $41.83.