Soligenix (NSDQ:SNGX) skyrocketed up 89% in premarket trading this morning after announcing today that it entered into an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement with Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX) for its CoVaccine HT novel vaccine adjuvant for COVID-19.
Shares of SNGX were up 12.5% at $1.58 per share in mid-morning trading today as well.
Boston Scientific’s BTG Specialty Pharmaceuticals division’s CoVaccine HT is now licensed to Princeton, N.J.-based Soligenix for the fields of SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19. The agreement was executed between Soligenix and Protherics Medicines Development. Terms of the deal are not being disclosed.
CoVaccine HT has been shown to enhance cell-mediated and antibody-mediated immunity, according to a news release. In collaboration with the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, Soligenix successfully demonstrated the utility of the vaccine in a heat-stable filovirus vaccine program, with candidates against Ebola and Marburg virus disease.
Soligenix said in the release that the previous success of the CoVaccine HT will be an important component of the current platform being assessed for use against coronavirus.
“BTG has a long track record of technological innovation in the production of antibodies for rescue medicines,” BTG president Anthony Higham said in the news release. “We’re pleased that, in the hands of Soligenix, CoVaccine HT could potentially play a role in helping to address the current pandemic.”
“We are very excited to include CoVaccine HT into our heat-stable vaccine platform technology,” added Soligenix president & CEO Christopher Schaber. “It has the potential to provide a distinct advantage over other vaccines currently in development. With the rapid advancement of the vaccine platform, we feel the program is optimally poised to look at other viruses, including coronaviruses.”
