Summary
- NantKwest announces initiation of second generation COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
- Protagonist Therapeutics receives orphan drug status for PTG-300.
- Genmab reports positive data from Phase 2 CASSIOPEIA study.
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NantKwest announces initiation of second generation COVID-19 vaccine candidate
NantKwest Inc. (NK) announced that it has dosed the first participant for its clinical trial of hAd5-COVID-19. The vaccine candidate uses a second-generation adenovirus to deliver multiple proteins of the SARS-CoV-2. The trial is currently enrolling healthy adult participants of up to age 55. The main aim of the trial is to examine the safety and reactogenicity of two doses of hAd5-COVID-19.
NantKwest is collaborating with ImmunityBio for developing this vaccine candidate. It is an engineered serotype vaccine and aims to work by delivering both the spike protein and nucleocapsid protein by dual constructs of SARS-CoV-2. Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, Chairman and CEO of ImmunityBio and NantKwest. “We believe this dual targeting is a key advantage that may lead to the stimulation of both T-cell-mediated and antibody-mediated immunity to SARS-CoV-2, which is an important differentiator from other vaccine candidates that only target the spike protein.”
hAd5-COVID-19 intends to generate B and T cell memory to the COVID-19 antigens and long-term immunity to the virus. Currently most of the COVID-19 vaccines being trialed are designed to provide only the monovalent spike protein on the surface of the virus to produce blocking antibodies.
The vaccine candidate has been developed using ImmunityBio’s novel human adenovirus vector. This technology enables the vaccine to be reengineered for increasing the immunogenicity of the COVID insert. The vector has shown preliminary safety in more than 125 patients spread across 13 Phase I and 2 trials till date. According to the data generated by National Cancer Institute clinical studies, the vector triggers antigen-specific T-cell immunity in patients, even if pre-existing adenoviral immunity is there.
The primary endpoint of the trial is to study the safety and reactogenicity of two doses of the vaccine. The companies are also working on developing different administration formats for hAd5 such as oral, intranasal and inhalational. NantKwest struck the deal with ImmunityBio in August 2020 and both will share development, manufacturing, marketing and commercialization costs.
