ImmunityBio, NantKwest Announce First Patient Dosed in Phase 1 Clinical Trial of Second-Generation COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate Delivering Both Spike and Nucleocapsid of SARS-CoV-2

CULVER CITY, Calif. & EL SEGUNDO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ImmunityBio, a privately-held immunotherapy company, and NantKwest, Inc. (NASDAQ: NK), a clinical-stage, natural killer cell-based therapeutics company, today announced that the first patient has been dosed in the Phase 1 clinical trial of hAd5-COVID-19, a novel COVID-19 vaccine candidate that targets the inner nucleocapsid (N) and the outer spike (S) protein, engineered to activate both T cells and antibodies against the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). This is a novel COVID vaccine that uses a second-generation adenovirus that delivers multiple proteins of the SARS-CoV-2 with the potential for long-term immunity through memory T cells. The Phase 1 trial, which is being conducted at the Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach, California, is currently enrolling healthy adult subjects up to age 55 with the goal of examining the safety and reactogenicity of two doses of the vaccine candidate.