Altimmune Announces FDA Approval for Phase 1 COVID-19 Vaccine Clinical Trials 

Altimmune, Inc. on Clopper Road in Gaithersburg. Via Google Street View.

Altimmune, Inc. announced Wednesday that it was approved by the FDA to begin Phase 1 clinical trials for AdCOVID, its single-dose nasal spray COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

The clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, headquartered in Gaithersburg, expects to begin volunteer enrollment in the trials in the coming week, according to a statement from the company.

“We believe deployment of intranasal vaccines like AdCOVID will be essential to a successful global response to the pandemic,” Altimmune President and CEO Vipin Garg said.

“Developing vaccines that can effectively prevent transmission is a growing imperative to block the spread of disease and combat the emergence of new variants. We look forward to the data from this trial in the coming weeks.” Phase 1 clinical trials will enroll up to 180 healthy, adult volunteers between ages 18-55, the statement reads. The trials will evaluate safety and immunogenicity of the vaccine candidate, and volunteers will receive it as a nasal spray at one of three possible dose levels.

On Thursday, Novavax, a vaccine development company also headquartered in Gaithersburg, announced that it entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with an international vaccine organization to globally supply more than 1 billion total doses of its vaccine candidate. Novavax’s candidate is currently in Phase 3 clinical trials in the U.S., Mexico and the United Kingdom.

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Maryam Shahzad

About Maryam Shahzad

Maryam is a reporter with Montgomery Community Media. She graduated from the University of Maryland in 2019 with a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism. Previously, she was an intern with MCM. She can be reached at mshahzad@mymcmedia.org or on Twitter @maryam_mcm.

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