San Francisco-based Vaxart will present research featuring its COVID-19 and norovirus oral pill vaccine candidates at the World Vaccine Congress Europe 2024 taking place in Barcelona, Spain on October 28-31, 2024.
According to Vaxart, its differentiated platform has generated both systemic and mucosal immune responses and demonstrated a favorable safety and tolerability profile in clinical trials. The company's proprietary VAAST (Vector-Adjuvant-Antigen Standardized Technology) platform uses a disabled adenovirus type 5 (Ad5) as a vector to help train the immune system to recognize and defeat invading pathogens.
Vaxart's COVID candidate, which the company says is the industry's most clinically advanced COVID vaccine tablet, is currently being evaluated in a phase 2b trial against an approved mRNA vaccine comparator. The oral candidate was part of BARDA's $500 million investment in Project NextGen funding for vaccine clinical trials, unveiled this past June. Vaxant walked away with the lion's share of award, with BARDA providing an initial $65.7 million for early trial milestones, and up to $453 million as the effort successfully advances toward trial execution.
Vaxart's oral tablet norovirus vaccine, VXA-G1.1-NN, is also in phase 2 trials, where it has demonstrated its ability to be immunogenic, efficacious, and able to reduce viral shedding. There are currently no approved norovirus vaccines.