On August 6, 2020 Vaxart, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing oral recombinant vaccines that are administered by tablet rather than by injection, reported an update on its financials for the second quarter of 2020, and a corporate update (Press release, Aviragen Therapeutics, AUG 6, 2020, View Source [SID1234563062]).

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"With $140 million in cash at the end of July, Vaxart is now laser focused on preparing to enter a Phase 1 clinical trial with our lead COVID-19 vaccine candidate," said Andrei Floroiu, chief executive officer of Vaxart, "We believe the convenience of our oral tablet, coupled with the potential for better protection than that of injectable vaccines due to the activation of mucosal immunity, positions our COVID-19 vaccine as one of the most promising candidates for successful mass vaccination campaigns, both here in the US and abroad."

Corporate Highlights:

On May 20, 2020, Vaxart announced that it had selected its lead COVID-19 vaccine candidate to move into clinical trials.

Vaxart is continuing with its manufacturing collaboration with Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (Emergent) and KindredBio and is currently producing bulk cGMP vaccine in time for initiation of a Phase 1 clinical study during the second half of 2020.

On June 25, 2020, Vaxart announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with Attwill Medical Solutions Sterilflow, LP ("AMS") affirming the parties’ intent to establish AMS as a resource for lyophilization development and large-scale manufacturing including tableting and enteric coating for the oral COVID-19 vaccine.

On June 26, 2020, Vaxart announced that its oral COVID-19 vaccine was selected to participate in a non-human primate challenge study, organized and funded by Operation Warp Speed.

The universal influenza vaccine collaboration study with Janssen has been completed and a report is being compiled for Janssen.

As of July 13, 2020, Vaxart had raised approximately $97 million in net proceeds through its At-The-Market facility (the ATM Program), which constituted the maximum offering price under the ATM Program.

Financial Results for the Fiscal Period Ended June 30, 2020

Vaxart reported a net loss of $9.0 million for the second quarter of 2020 compared to $5.6 million for the second quarter of 2019. The increase was mainly due to an increase in operating expenses. Net loss per share for the second quarter was $0.12 in 2020 compared to $0.39 in 2019, in part due to an increase in the number of shares outstanding.

Vaxart ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $44.4 million compared to $29.9 million at March 31, 2020. The increase was primarily due to $14.4 million received for the exercise of common stock warrants, partially offset by $3.7 million of cash used in operations.

Revenue for the second quarter was $523,000 compared to $85,000 in the second quarter of 2019. The increase was principally due to the reversal of the reserve for sales returns for Relenza and revenue from our contract with Janssen.

Research and development expenses were $5.1 million for the second quarter compared to $3.7 million for the second quarter of 2019. The increase was mainly due to manufacturing expenses related to the COVID-19 vaccine candidate and higher stock-based compensation costs, partially offset by reductions in the cost of clinical trials for our norovirus vaccine candidate and in personnel costs after we ceased internal manufacturing as part of our December 2019 restructuring.

General and administrative expenses were $3.9 million for the second quarter compared to $1.4 million for the second quarter of 2019. The increase was mainly due to higher stock-based compensation costs and severance expenses related to our former Chief Executive Officer.