Oragenics Project to Develop a Variant-Agnostic Protein Antigen for Use in its COVID-19 Intranasal Vaccine Receives Funding from CQDM

Oragenics, Inc. (NYSE American: OGEN) (“Oragenics” or the “Company”), a biotechnology company dedicated to fighting infectious diseases, announces the award of a grant from CQDM, a Canadian bioresearch consortium, for the collaborative development of a variant-agnostic COVID-19 protein subunit vaccine candidate. The project, which aims to build upon Oragenics’ current lead intranasal vaccine candidate NT-CoV2-1, is a collaboration with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and Inspirevax.

“By collaborating with our longstanding partners, we are better able to address the evolving SARS-CoV-2 virus by working to develop broadly protective antigens designed to protect against current and future variants. Our pan-coronavirus vaccine candidate presents a potential universal solution to the evolving nature of SARS-CoV-2 and potentially future coronaviruses by targeting mucosal immunity at the source, being readily deployable through faster manufacturing and exhibiting lower barriers for storage and transportation,” said Kim Murphy, President and Chief Executive Officer of Oragenics. “We are grateful for this new source of non-dilutive funding to advance our scientific work.”

“We are delighted to support the work of Oragenics and Inspirevax on the continued development of their intranasal vaccine, which offers a novel solution to reducing SARS-CoV-2 transmission by targeting mucosal immunity, among other benefits. Collaborative efforts such as this accelerate technological advancement by combining the most innovative R&D from each organization,” said Diane Gosselin, President and CEO of CQDM.

In March 2023, Oragenics entered into an exclusive global license agreement with Inspirevax for its novel intranasal mucosal adjuvant, BDX301, and also formed a Joint Development Committee to oversee development efforts collaboratively. The grant awarded by CQDM is expected to help Oragenics fund the development of two to four well-characterized stable CHO pools expressing new, cross-protective vaccine antigens with well-established preclinical efficacy using intranasal immunization. These antigens are expected to be rapidly deployable in next-generation vaccine formulations by leveraging the NRC’s advanced manufacturing platform currently utilized by Oragenics and previously developed for the reference strain SARS-CoV-2 spike antigen.