Aeterna Zentaris Shelves Early-Stage Vaccine Programs, Including COVID-19

Aeterna Zentaris Inc AEZS has decided to streamline development programs by discontinuing its early-stage vaccine programs.
The company worked on evaluating administration routes, dosing, and immunization scheme and conducted in-vivo immunology experiments with candidate strains expressing various antigens in relevant mice models. To date, the company has not been able to select a clinical development candidate for a COVID-19 vaccine.
Also, the COVID-19 vaccine landscape has evolved profoundly over the past two years. Aeterna has decided that it will not pursue further development of the vaccine platform for either COVID-19 or Chlamydia (based on the same vaccine platform used in its COVID-19 program).
As a result, the company has also elected to terminate its license agreements with the University of Wuerzburg for vaccine platform technology.
The streamlined operations allow the company to meet its currently anticipated cash needs into 2025.
In August 2022, Aeterna Zentaris announced that Novo Nordisk A/S NVO terminated the amended development and commercialization license agreement for Macrilen (macimorelin), an oral test indicated for the diagnosis of adult growth hormone deficiency.
Aeterna Zentaris said it is progressing its efforts to seek an alternate development and commercialization partner for Macrilen.
Price Action: AEZS shares are trading higher by 3.18% at $3.89 on the last check Tuesday.