June 4, 2020 -- Elixirgen Therapeutics said it has finished a preinvestigational new drug meeting with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its EXG-5003 COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
EXG-5003 is a temperature-sensitive, intradermally-injected self-replicating RNA (srRNA) vaccine that expresses the receptor binding domain of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, according to the company. Elixirgen believes that the vaccine candidate has unique features that potentially could provide dose sparing and safety benefits.
The combination of intradermal injection and srRNA technology may yield improved immunogenicity and may enable EXG-5003 to be more dose sparing than messenger RNA alone. In addition, its temperature sensitivity may enhance its safety profile, according to Elixirgen.