Capricor Announces Collaboration With NIAID For StealthX Vaccine; Stock Up

(RTTNews) - Capricor Therapeutics, Inc. (CAPR) announced a collaboration with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for the clinical trial of StealthX vaccine as part of Project NextGen, an initiative by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The collaboration aims to advance a pipeline of new vaccines for COVID-19. Following the news, the stock surged 7%.

CAPR is trading on the Nasdaq at $4.44, up 7.50% or $0.31 per share. It has traded between $2.68 and $8.22 in the past 52-week period.

They plan to conduct a Phase 1 clinical study with Capricor's StealthX exosome-based multivalent vaccine StealthX vaccine, pending regulatory approval. The study will be overseen by NIAID's Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (DMID).

Linda Marbán, Ph.D., Capricor's chief executive officer, stated that their proprietary vaccine delivers both the highly mutagenic S protein (Spike) and the more stable N protein (Nucleocapsid). This combination may offer broader and longer lasting immunity against SARS-CoV-2, as their StealthX vaccine is free of adjuvant and lipid nanoparticles.

Preclinical studies of StealthX vaccine have shown that it generates a strong immune response at low doses.