Pfizer Inc. (PFE, Financial) announced yesterday that along with Acuitas Therapeutics, it has entered into a development and option agreement under which Pfizer will have the option to license, on a non-exclusive basis, Acuitas’ LNP technology for up to 10 targets for vaccine or therapeutic development.
Acuitas’ clinically-validated LNP technology is used in COMIRNATY, the Pfizer-BioNTech (BNTX, Financial) Covid-19 vaccine. The Vancouver, Canada-based company focuses on developing lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery systems to enable messenger RNA (mRNA)-based therapeutics.
Positive news in the fight against Covid-19 is always welcome. Pfizer’s stock closed yesterday at $56.24, a gain of 0.93%. Also on Monday, Albert Bourla, Pfizer’s Chairman and CEO, told Yahoo Finance during the annual JPMorgan (JPM, Financial) Health Care conference that his company is developing a new iteration of its Omicron-specific vaccine, and expects it to be ready by the end of this year’s first quarter.
"We are working on a new version of our vaccine, our 1.1.... that will cover Omicron as well,” Bourla commented. “Of course, we are waiting to have the final results. The vaccine will be ready by March. We need to see if we will need it, and we need to see what place it can take in the overall fight against the virus."
Just six days ago, Pfizer was upgraded to “buy” status by Bank of America (BAC, Financial), which raised the pharmaceutical company’s price target from $59 to $70. The upgrade, according to analyst Geoff Meacham, was the result of “expectations of a dramatic rollout of Paxlovid (an oral Covid-19 therapy) in 2022 and significant investments in the pipeline,” thestreet.com reported. “Since 2020, investors have focused squarely on Pfizer's success in battling Covid-19, namely through vaccines and now oral agents.”
The success rate of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine has given it what Financial Times called “the key to saving lives and economies. The World Health Organization estimates as many as half a million more people would have died this year in Europe alone if there had been no Covid vaccines… Depending on its decisions, countries, regions and even whole continents can open up their economies or risk falling behind in the race to control the virus.”
“Our swift delivery of the world’s first mRNA-LNP-based vaccine made clear the promise of mRNA-LNP technology,” said Mikael Dolsten, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer and President of Worldwide Research, Development and Medical at Pfizer, in a press release. “We are making significant investments to harness the power of the mRNA-LNP technology and deliver potential new breakthrough vaccines and therapeutics that address significant unmet needs for patients. This agreement expands our LNP capabilities and allows us to explore more projects within our existing vaccines area and new therapeutic areas where mRNA-LNP technology holds potential for success.”
“Acuitas is extremely proud that its LNP technology contributes to the success of COMIRNATY and is excited to be working with Pfizer to advance new vaccines and therapeutic products,” added its president and CEO Dr. Thomas Madden.
According to Bourla, his company remains on track to achieve its goal of delivering at least 2 billion doses to low- and middle-income countries by the end of 2022.
