Why Dynavax Shares Are Rallying Today

Dynavax Technologies Corporation DVAX shares are advancing solidly after the company and Clover Biopharma issued an update on their joint coronavirus vaccine program.

What Happened: China-based Clover and Dynavax said they plan to initiate a global Phase 2/3 study efficacy trial with the former's S-Trimer COVID-19 vaccine, adjuvanted with the latter's CpG 1018, plus alum, in the first half of 2021.

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Results from Phase 1 study showed that Clover's vaccine candidate that is being tested with adjuvants from either Dynavax or GlaxoSmithKline plc GSK induced a high level of neutralizing antibodies, while also demonstrating favorable safety and tolerability profiles, the companies said.

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"We believe this vaccine candidate could be efficacious while potentially having a differentiated, beneficial reactogenicity and safety profile which could make it attractive for a broad population of peoples," said Joshua Liang, CEO of Clover.

What's Next: Dynavax and Clover expect to release an interim analysis for vaccine efficacy potentially in the middle of 2021.

The vaccine program is being funded by CEPI, which will continue to fund the Phase 2/3 trial through licensure.

Clover said it expects to produce hundreds of millions of vaccine doses in 2021 and up to 1 billion vaccine doses in peak annual production as required by global demand.

In premarket trading Monday, Dynavax shares were rising 15% to $7.31.