Press release
Arcturus Therapeutics Announces that it has Initiated Dosing of its COVID-19 STARR™ mRNA Vaccine Candidate, LUNAR-COV19 (ARCT-021) in a Phase 1/2 study
Potential for highly differentiated COVID-19 vaccine profile with a single administration, at a low dose Clinical study data expected in Q4 2020 SAN DIEGO,
About this update from Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"Potential for highly differentiated COVID-19 vaccine profile with a single administration, at a low dose \n Clinical study data expected in Q4 2020 SAN DIEGO, Aug. 11, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc. (the “Company”, “Arcturus”, Nasdaq: ARCT), a leading clinical-stage messenger RNA medicines company focused on the development of infectious disease vaccines and significant opportunities within liver and respiratory rare diseases, today announced that all subjects in the first cohort have been dosed in the Phase 1/2 clinical study with its ARCT-021 investigational vaccine for COVID-19. The study is being conducted with CTI Clinical Trial and Consulting Services, a global CRO, and in collaboration with Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore. “We are very pleased to have initiated dosing in our ARCT-021 Phase 1/2 study, and in fact, we have already completed dosing of all subjects in the first cohort of the study. Based on preclinical immunogenicity data, our self-replicating mRNA-based investigational vaccine could have a highly differentiated safety and efficacy profile, and may potentially allow vaccination at very low doses, and with a single administration. These favorable attributes could greatly facilitate mass vaccination campaigns necessary to control this global pandemic,” said Joseph Payne, President & CEO of Arcturus. “We look forward to sharing initial clinical data from this Phase 1/2 study in Q4 which we expect to enable dose selection for late phase clinical trials.” The ARCT-021 Phase 1/2 study includes two parts. In Phase 1, escalating doses will be administered as a single injection to younger adults aged 21 to 55 years old. Based upon the safety, immunogenicity and T-cell response data from this group, dose regimens will be selected for further evaluation in Phase 2 which includes cohorts in younger adults and older adults aged 56 to 80 years old. The study is listed with ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04480957. ARCT-021 preclinical data has shown highly promising results with 100% seroconversion for neutralizing antibodies after a single administration using a very low 2 µg dose. Neutralizing antibodies continued to increase for 60 days after dosing. Preclinical results also demonstrated robust CD8+ T-cell Induction and a Th1 biased T-helper cellular immune response. The ARCT-021 vac...