- Ultra-thinly traded nano cap Vaxart (NASDAQ:VXRT) is up 38% premarket on increased volume, albeit on only 16K shares, on the heels of its announcement of positive data from a Phase 2 challenge study of its H1 influenza oral tablet vaccine. The results will be presented this Saturday, October 6, at IDWeek in San Francisco.
- The vaccine elicited a significant expansion of mucosal homing receptor α4β7+ (β7+) plasmablasts, cells that play a key role in an immune response, to about 60% of all activated B cells, significantly higher than 20% from Sanofi's (SNY) Fluzone.
- It also generated protective hemagglutinin inhibition (HAI) antibodies in serum, similar to conventional injectable flu vaccines.
- As previously reported, 37% of participants receiving the Vaxart vaccine developed influenza infection after challenge compared to 44% for Fluzone and 71% for placebo.
- Development is ongoing.