Health and Healthcare

iBio Takes Another Big Step in the Fight Against COVID-19

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iBio Inc. (NYSE: IBIO) has announced that it has selected a vaccine to advance for the prevention of infection by SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Specifically, the firm is advancing IBIO-201, its LicKM-subunit vaccine.

Previously, the firm announced that IBIO-200 and IBIO 201, combined with select adjuvants from the Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI), induced anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in preclinical studies.

Additional data from cell-based pseudovirus neutralization assay testing demonstrated that IBIO-201 induced the production of more anti-spike neutralizing antibodies than IBIO-200 in immunized mice.

Management noted that the near-term goal is to conduct more focused studies on each of IBIO-200 and IBIO-201, for the purpose of advancing IBIO-201 to toxicology studies ahead of planned clinical development. In the meantime, the firm intends to continue preclinical development of IBIO-200 and the viruslike particle platform as a potential “plug-and-play” vaccine development system.

A quick timeline of iBio’s foray into COVID-19: The firm announced its virus-like particle (VLP) program (IBIO-200) and LicKM-Subunit vaccine program (IBIO-201) on March 18 and June 3, respectively. Preclinical studies were initiated following these announcements.

Looking ahead, iBio plans to continue its work with IDRI and the Texas A&M University System. The firm also expects to engage additional collaborators for further characterization and testing of IBIO-201 prior to performing GLP toxicology studies.

Excluding Wednesday’s move, iBio stock was up over 663% year to date. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock was up closer to 205%.

iBio stock traded up about 6% to $2.02 on Wednesday, in a 52-week range of $0.05 to $7.45. The consensus price target is $3.10.

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