CVAC - GSK CureVac starts phase 1 trial of mRNA COVID-19 booster vaccine targeting Omicron

CureVac ( NASDAQ: CVAC ) said it started a phase 1 trial of a modified COVID-19 mRNA vaccine CV0501, given as a booster dose to previous COVID-19 vaccination.

The company added that CV0501, which is being developed in collaboration with GSK ( NYSE: GSK ), is based on CureVac's second-generation mRNA backbone and is designed to specifically protect against the Omicron variant.

The study will be conducted at sites in the U.S., U.K., Australia, and the Philippines and is expected to enroll up to 180 healthy, COVID-19-vaccinated adults to evaluate a single booster dose of CV0501 in the dose range of 12µg to 50µg.

Additional dose levels below 12µg and above 50µg may be evaluated if supported by data of those doses, the company said in an Aug. 18 press release.

CureVac noted that the CV0501 study follows the start of a phase 1 trial in March 2022 which evaluates an unmodified second-generation COVID-19 vaccine candidate CV2CoV, encoding for the original virus variant.

CureVac said data from both studies are expected to be reported as a combined data set as it expects to identify the best-performing candidate for later-stage clinical development.

CVAC +0.23% to $13.21 premarket Aug. 18

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