FDA Authorizes Phase 1 Trial of ImmunityBio’s Novel COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate hAd5; Dual Construct is Designed to Drive Both T Cell and Antibody Immunity

CULVER CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ImmunityBio, Inc., a privately-held immunotherapy company, today announced it has received authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to begin a Phase I clinical trial of hAd5-COVID-19, the company’s novel COVID-19 vaccine candidate that targets both the inner nucleocapsid (N), engineered to activate T cells, and outer spike (S) protein, engineered to activate antibodies against the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). These dual constructs (bivalent sequences) of SARS-CoV-2 offer the potential for the hAd5 vaccine to provide recipients with durable, long-term cell-mediated immunity with potent antibody stimulation against both the S and N proteins.