Altimmune Shares Volatile After Presentation of Positive Flu Vaccine Data at IDWeek

Altimmune Inc ALT shares have been on a roller coaster ride since mid-September, swinging in a wild range of $26.23 to $4.27. 

The shares were jumping 28.87 percent to $9.33 in premarket trading Monday before falling more than 30 percent to $5.06 after the open. 

What Happened

Altimmune presented an oral abstract on its intranasal influenza vaccine NasoVax at the IDWeek conference held in San Francisco over the weekend.

The presentation made Oct. 6 showed that NasoVAX was well-tolerated and elicited comparable antibody responses and nearly sixfold higher cellular immune response than Sanofi SA SNY's Fluzone injectable influenza vaccine.

The Phase 2 study evaluated 60 healthy adults randomized to three doses of monovalent NasoVAX formulations or saline placebo, all given as a 0.25 ml nasal spray in each nostril. A parallel cohort of 20 subjects were dosed with Fluzone.

The study participants were assessed for safety, including solicited local and systemic side effects.

The immune responses studied included hemagglutination inhibition and neutralizing antibody at days one, 15, 29, 90 and 180, and ɣ-interferon ELISpot at days one and eight. 

What's Next

Citing the additional positive Phase 2a data released in early September, Altimmune said it expects to initiate additional Phase 2 studies in 2019.

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