COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate Cancelled

Altimmune, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALT), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company located in Gaithersburg, MD, confirmed on June 29, 2021, although its intranasal COVID-19 vaccine candidate, AdCOVID, was well tolerated in a phase 1 study, it did not stimulate an adequate immune response in healthy volunteers. Therefore, Altimmune stated it would discontinue further development of the AdCOVID beyond completing this Phase 1 trial.

“The immune response to AdCOVID was inferior to that seen in our NasoVAX influenza vaccine trial,” commented Scot Roberts, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer at Altimmune, in a press statement.

“Unlike the NasoVAX study, the AdCOVID study population lacked immunity from prior infection or vaccination. We believe that prior immunity in humans may be important for a robust immune response to intranasal dosing with AdCOVID.”

Altimmune is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing treatments for obesity and liver disease and intranasal vaccines. Its pipeline includes next-generation peptide therapeutics for obesity, NASH (ALT-801), and chronic hepatitis B (HepTcell™); proprietary intranasal vaccines; and an immune-modulating therapeutic for COVID-19 (T-COVID™).