On November 8, 2022 Vaxart, Inc. (NASDAQ: VXRT) reported for the third quarter of 2022, during which the Company made significant progress on its oral vaccine candidates (Press release, Vaxart, NOV 8, 2022, View Source [SID1234623409]).

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"We are encouraged by the growing body of clinical evidence that supports the transformational potential of Vaxart’s oral pill vaccine platform with positive data from both our leading programs, COVID-19 and norovirus," said Andrei Floroiu, Vaxart’s Chief Executive Officer.

Dr. James Cummings, Vaxart’s Chief Medical Officer, said, "During the third quarter, we announced positive top-line Phase II clinical study results for our Wuhan S-only COVID-19 pill vaccine candidate. These data are very encouraging, showing that Vaxart’s vaccine candidate can trigger both serum and mucosal immunity and can boost responses in those having previously received mRNA vaccines. These results highlight the potential of mucosal immunity through remarkable cross-reactive responses. Our Wuhan vaccine candidate showed equally strong activity towards Omicron, something not seen with injectable vaccines. Additionally, we remain confident in our norovirus program, with encouraging recent data from our trial in elderly adults, which suggests similar activity as seen in younger adults. This is not often expected with vaccines and offers another potential source of differentiation for our oral pill vaccine candidate."

"Norovirus is a significant opportunity for Vaxart – with a $10 billion economic burden of disease in the U.S. alone and no approved vaccine against a disease that disproportionately affects older and pediatric populations. Vaxart has generated compelling clinical data across five norovirus trials. We are eagerly anticipating the upcoming results of our norovirus human challenge study at the end of the first quarter or at the start of the second quarter of 2023. We are increasing our focus on the norovirus program, with two additional clinical trials planned to start in the next six months," Mr. Floroiu added.

Vaxart’s oral vaccine platform has the potential to transform the vaccination paradigm globally, by providing significant advantages compared to injectable vaccines. One of the Company’s vaccine candidates was shown to be as protective as a leading injectable against a pandemic respiratory virus in a human flu challenge study. In addition, data from multiple programs suggest that by triggering mucosal immunity the platform could provide cross-reactivity against variants, reduce viral transmission, offer long duration of protection and offer a more tolerable safety profile.

"These potential advantages are in addition to those offered by the oral pill format, which could allow more people to be vaccinated painlessly, easily and faster all around the world. We are in a position to aggressively pursue our two leading clinical programs and are very excited looking into 2023 at the significant milestones for both programs – the readouts of two human challenge studies for norovirus and COVID-19," Mr. Floroiu concluded.

Recent Business Highlights

COVID-19 Vaccine Developments

In September 2022, Vaxart reported positive top-line data from its Phase II COVID-19 trial supporting broad potential of the Company’s COVID-19 vaccine candidates to tackle the challenges of an evolving virus that continues to overcome the immune protection provided by approved vaccines.
Vaxart is the only company with a mucosal vaccine candidate for COVID-19 that has produced Phase II clinical data that shows it stimulates mucosal immunity.
In July 2022, the Company updated Phase I data showing Vaxart’s Spike/Nucleocapsid (S+N) candidate stimulated SARS-CoV-2-specific IgA antibodies in saliva and nasal samples from human subjects and was cross-reactive to many different coronaviruses that are more divergent than circulating variants of SARS-CoV-2.
Norovirus Vaccine Developments

In June 2022, Vaxart reported positive top-line data about its norovirus vaccine candidate.
The data from Vaxart’s Phase Ib trial in subjects aged 55-80 demonstrated that Vaxart’s oral norovirus vaccine candidate stimulated a robust immune response across all doses, with a dose-dependent production of IgA antibody secreting cells.
Results were consistent with previous studies conducted in younger populations, which is typically not the case, as the immune system often weakens with age, and older people tend to have less robust responses to vaccination than younger people.
No vaccine exists in the United States to treat norovirus, a virus that causes up to 21 million cases, 109,000 hospitalizations and 900 deaths annually in the United States.
Corporate Updates

Bolstered management and Board with three significant additions:
In August, named Ray Stapleton, Ph.D. as Chief Technology Officer.
Dr. Stapleton joins Vaxart from Genocea, where he served as CTO and Executive Vice President, working to develop next generation personalized immunotherapies in the forms of vaccines and cell therapies. His prior experience includes senior manufacturing and technical operations roles at a number of biotech companies after spending 15 years in positions of increasing responsibility in Merck and Company’s manufacturing organization.
Also in August, appointed Elaine J. Heron, Ph.D. and W. Mark Watson to the Company’s Board of Directors.
Dr. Heron currently serves on the boards of BioMarin Pharmaceutical, Inc., Palvella Therapeutics, Inc., Visgenx, Inc., and Watershed Medical, Inc. She also serves as an advisor to Kyto Technology and Life Science, Inc. Dr. Heron has over 35 years of experience in the life science research and biotech development sectors.
Mr. Watson is a Certified Public Accountant with more than 40 years of experience in public accounting and auditing, having spent his entire career from January 1973 to June 2013 at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and its predecessor, most recently as Central Florida Marketplace Leader.
Planned Clinical Milestones in the COVID-19 and Norovirus Pipelines

Vaxart continues to make progress on its expected milestones:

Start of Phase II trial of Vaxart’s bivalent norovirus vaccine candidate in Q4 2022 or Q1 2023.
Top-line data from ongoing Phase II norovirus challenge study expected at the end of Q1 2023 or early Q2 2023.
Selection of COVID-19 vaccine construct to be used in the UK human challenge study expected in Q4 2022.
After determining which COVID-19 vaccine candidate to advance, Vaxart anticipates updating its plans for its India trials.
Omicron Human Challenge Trial in the UK starting in 2H 2023 using selected vaccine construct.
Financial Results for the Three Months Ended September 30, 2022

Vaxart ended the third quarter with cash, cash equivalents and available-for-sale debt securities of $114.8 million, compared to $131.5 million as of June 30, 2022. The decrease was primarily due to $14.6 million of cash used in operations.
The Company reported a net loss of $29.3 million for the third quarter of 2022, compared to $17.6 million for the third quarter of 2021. Net loss per share for the third quarter of 2022 was $0.23, compared to a net loss of $0.14 per share in the third quarter of 2021. The increase in net loss was primarily due to a significant increase in research and development costs.
Research and development expenses were $22.5 million for the third quarter of 2022, compared to $12.4 million for the third quarter of 2021. The increase was mainly due to increases in headcount and related costs, and in manufacturing and clinical trial expenses related to our COVID-19 and norovirus vaccine candidates.
General and administrative expenses were $7.0 million for the third quarter of 2022, compared to $5.0 million for the third quarter of 2021. The increase was mainly due to increases in headcount and related costs and in legal and professional costs.
Conference Call
The Vaxart senior management team will host a conference call to discuss the business update and financial results for the third quarter of 2022 today, beginning at 4:30 p.m. ET.