Vaccine in Development for Coronavirus Disease 2019

Hoth Therapeutics, Inc announced today that it has reached an agreement with Voltron Therapeutics to form a joint venture entity, to be named HaloVax, to commence preclinical studies for the development of vaccine prospects to prevent the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) based on VaxCelerate, a self-assembling vaccine (SAV) platform.

The companies will work together to explore and develop the SAV technology as a means to aid patients at risk of being infected with COVID-19. The VaxCelerate vaccine platform was developed as a means of rapidly generating and pre-clinically testing a new vaccine against specific pathogen targets.

The technology, which received Department of Defense (DoD) funding, has demonstrated proof of concept in Lassa Fever, an emerging infectious disease. HaloVax said it intends to use these same SAV principles to assist in the development of a potential vaccine against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The vaccine has 2 elements to combat the coronavirus, 1 fixed immune adjuvant and 1 variable immune-targeting and offers several potential advantages over other compounds in combination therapy. In infectious applications, it allows rapid development against viruses and other pathogens. The vaccine focuses on both DNA and internal/external mutated proteins providing the immune system with more potential targets to attack.

“COVID-19 is a global pandemic. With the support of Andy Herr, Hoth’s scientific advisor and professor of infectious diseases at the University of Cincinnati, we intend to leverage our resources to develop products designed to prevent this deadly virus. We believe that the VaxCelerate technology has the potential to provide a differentiated approach to finding a COVID-19 vaccine,” said Robb Knie, chief executive officer of Hoth.

Reference

Hoth Therapeutics Announces Agreement to Joint Development for a Self-Assembling Vaccine (SAV) for the Potential Prevention of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) [news release]. Biospace website. Published March 23, 2020. https://www.biospace.com/article/releases/hoth-therapeutics-announces-agreement-to-joint-development-for-a-self-assembling-vaccine-sav-for-the-potential-prevention-of-the-coronavirus-covid-19-/. Accessed March 23, 2020.