Oragenics (NYSEAMERICAN:OGEN) stock is soaring higher on Tuesday after announcing a deal concerning its vaccine candidate for the novel coronavirus.
Oragenics has reached an agreement with Biodextris that will allow it to make use of the company’s BDX100, BDX300 and BDX301 proteosome-based adjuvants. It will use these with its Terra CoV-2 vaccine.
Adjuvants added to vaccines to increase their immunogenicity. With the addition of the new adjuvants from Biodextris, Oragenics is making progress in the development of its coronavirus vaccine.
Oragenics notes that it plans to start out with animal testing of the vaccine in combination with the adjuvants. This will include hamster, mouse, and rodent studies. The company hopes to move into human studies after this.
The deal between Oragenics and Biodextris also allows for a potential expansion in the future. That includes use in a commercial vaccine if Terra CoV-2 gets approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Alan Joslyn, Ph.D., president and CEO of OGEN, said this about the news pushing the company’s stock up today.
“This material transfer agreement both expands and advances the development of our Terra CoV-2 vaccine with a novel delivery option. The Biodextris intranasal mucosal adjuvants in combination with the Oragenics antigen open up new possibilities for a vaccine that could potentially be a more effective and convenient option than those currently available.”
OGEN stock was seeing heavy trading on today’s news. As of this writing, more than 96 million shares have changed hands. That’s quite the spike compared to its daily average trading volume of almost 25 million shares.
OGEN stock was up 38.5% as of Tuesday morning and is up 123.1% since the start of the year.
On the date of publication, William White did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.
