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 Altimmune is developing a COVID-19 vaccine candidate to be
administered via nasal spray, and has begun Phase 1 safety studies
in humans, with expected data to come in the second quarter.
Lonza's 300,000-square-foot cell and gene therapy factory, opened in
2018, will provide manufacturing space for Altimmune's AdCOVID
vaccine, which uses an adenovirus vector to help stimulate an immune
response. The deal follows Lonza's larger agreement with Moderna to
produce drug substances for its mRNA vaccine in the United States
and Switzerland.
"Manufacturing capacity for COVID-19 vaccines has been severely
constrained, and this limitation has presented considerable
challenges for vaccine developers," said Vyjayanthi Krishnan, who
heads Altimmune's product development. "By expanding our Lonza
collaboration and commissioning our own dedicated manufacturing
suite, we are building extra capacity and redundancy into our
manufacturing."
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The Lonza-Altimmune partnership was announced
last November.
In animal experiments, Altimmune has said its
intranasal COVID-19 vaccine induced immune
responses in mice, including disease fighting
T-cells and neutralizing antibodies.
(Reporting by John Miller, editing by John
Revill)
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