Altimmune: The Late Bloomer Of The COVID-19 Biotech World, The Best Is Yet To Come

Summary

• I am bullish on Altimmune because of their two COVID-19 programs, T-COVID and AdCOVID. Specifically, T-COVID is reminiscent of a Tamiflu, but for COVID-19.
• AdCOVID has all the characteristics that WHO is looking for: sterilizing immunity (prevention of infection and transmission), safety, a single-dose administration, intranasal, and room temperature storage.
• The OWS vaccines will not be effective enough to end this pandemic. As such, COVID-19 will linger for years until approval of an effective vaccine that is able to induce sterilizing immunity.
• The three primary risks to ALT's shareholders are: the early abatement of the COVID-19 pandemic before ALT's products launch, lack of financing and manufacturing capacity, and lastly - clinical trial failures.

Source: Altimmune Website

Company Background:

Altimmune (NASDAQ:ALT) is a US biopharmaceutical company based in Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA, which focuses on developing treatments for liver disease, immune-modulating therapies, and vaccines. Altimmune has various pre-clinical to clinical pipeline candidates for NASH (ALT-801), chronic hepatitis B (HepTcell), cancer (ALT-702), and intranasal vaccines (NasoVAX and NasoShield). I am particularly interested in ALT's COVID-19 programs because it is the most important short-term driver for ALT's stock price. I believe its NASH and chronic hepatitis B initiative will emerge as encouraging assets in the long term. The promising outlook for AdCOVID and T-COVID in the near term has the potential to draw investors' attention to ALT's other pipeline candidates. Moreover, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, awareness of various vaccines and infectious diseases has improved, and I expect a strong tailwind for differentiated vaccine developers like ALT over the next decade.

ALT's Pipeline and Upcoming Catalyst for ALT:

Drug Name:	Indication:	Last Event:	The phase of development:	Upcoming Catalyst Date
AdCOVID	COVID-19	08/25/2020	Preclinical	10/01/20 - 12/31/20
T-COVID	COVID-19	06/29/2020	IND	Now - 09/30/20
ALT-702	Solid Tumors	01/23/2020	Preclinical	Now - 12/31/20
ALT-801	Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH)	08/26/2020	Preclinical	10/01/20 - 12/31/20
DepoVax-Anthrax	Anthrax Infection (Anti-bacterial)	05/04/2017	Suspended
Flunisyn	Seasonal Influenza Vaccines	05/04/2017	Suspended
Hepsyn-B	Hepatitis B Prevention (Vaccines, Antiviral)	05/04/2017	Suspended
HepTcell	Hepatitis B Prevention (Vaccines, Antiviral)	06/22/2020	I	10/01/20 - 12/31/20
NasoShield	Anthrax Infection (Antibacterial)	08/07/2020	I	Now - 09/30/20
NasoVAX	Seasonal Influenza Vaccines	08/28/2020	II	Now - 12/31/20
NasoVAX	Pandemic Influenza Vaccines	03/19/2019	II
NasoVAX	COVID-19	06/24/2020	Preclinical	Now - 09/30/20
Oncosyn	Cancer	12/13/2018	Preclinical
rBChE	Biodefense	05/04/2017	Suspended
SP-1373	Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH)	07/15/2019	Preclinical	Now - 12/31/20
SP-1373	Diabetes Mellitus, Type II	06/11/2017	Preclinical
SparVax	Anthrax Infection (Antibacterial)

Analyst’s Disclosure:I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.