Gritstone Oncology (NASDAQ: GRTS), a California based biotechnology company has seen its share price shoot higher premarket on Tuesday after it revealed it is advancing the development of a second-generation vaccine against coronavirus.
Gritstone’s shares are up 34.90% at $8.62.
Gritstone and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, have entered into a clinical trial agreement to start clinical testing. A Phase 1 clinical trial is in development with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation supporting the preclinical evaluation.
The company will have access to validated SARS-CoV-2 epitopes that have been identified through studies of hundreds of patients recovering from COVID-19, via a license agreement with the La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI).
“Since inception, Gritstone has developed two core assets – cutting-edge T cell epitope identification and potent vaccines shown to activate a strong and broad immune response in humans – and both of these have been deployed in our quest for a second generation SARS-CoV-2 vaccine,” said Andrew Allen, co-founder, president and CEO of Gritstone.
