Capricor Highlights Preclinical Data From Its Closed COVID-19 Vaccine Study

Capricor Therapeutics CAPR announced the publication of a preclinical study online in bioRxiv and explored Capricor's proprietary StealthX exosome platform's therapeutic potential, generating two vaccine candidates (STX-S and STX-N).
The vaccines independently and in combination (STX-S+N) induced a strong immune response against two SARS-CoV-2 proteins, spike and nucleocapsid.
Results showed that this multivalent, protein-based vaccine candidate has the potential to achieve potent, longer-lasting immunization, broaden reactivity and improve T-cell response with only nanograms of protein without any adjuvant.
The data from this study suggests that StealthX could deliver a more potent vaccine with broader immunity than is currently available by combining the advantages of both mRNA and recombinant protein vaccines into a potentially superior, low-dose vaccine.
Capricor said it had halted work on the exosome-based jab in March due to the "current availability of vaccines for" COVID-19. Instead, the Company will focus its resources on CAP-1002 for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
Capricor also tested CAP-1002 in patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19 who are on supplemental oxygen. Overall mortality in the study was 20%, with six deaths in the placebo group and five in the CAP-1002 group.
Price Action: CAPR shares are up 4.03% at $4.13 on the last check Thursday.