(Reuters) -Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc said on Tuesday its lead COVID-19 vaccine candidate showed significantly lower levels of antibodies against the Omicron variant in lab testing.
Based on the data, Inovio plans to seek regulatory approval to change the main goal of its ongoing late-stage study of the candidate, INO-4800, to prevention of severe disease due to COVID-19 from the earlier goal of prevention of virologically confirmed COVID-19 disease.
Inovio has paused enrolment in the trial to prepare for this potential change, and said interim efficacy data from the trial will not be available in the first half of 2022 as previously expected.
However, the company said the vaccine maintained robust T-cell response. T-cells are a key part of the immune system’s second line of defense.
In November, Inovio said it had begun testing its vaccine candidate to evaluate effectiveness against the new variant.
(Reporting by Mrinalika Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)
