Altimmune (ALT) reports FY19 results; announces vaccine candidate for COVID-19

Altimmune Inc. (NASDAQ: ALT) reported its earnings results for fiscal-year 2019. Revenues totaled $5.8 million compared to $10.3 million last year. The drop in revenues was caused by lower billings under the US government contracts.

Net loss attributed to common stockholders for the year was $20.97 million, or $1.60 per share, versus $42.48 million, or $15.16 per share, last year. Last year’s results were impacted by an impairment charge of $24.9 million.

Analysts had projected a loss of $1.52 per share on revenue of $5.9 million for the year. Shares were down 6.4% in premarket hours on Friday.

R&D expenses decreased to $17.8 million from $18.5 million last year due to lower manufacturing and clinical trial costs on existing programs.

Altimmune announced that it has begun developing AdCOVID, an intranasal vaccine candidate for protection from COVID-19. The company said its vaccine candidate is capable of remaining stable under room temperature thus avoiding the need for cold chain shipping. This makes distribution easier among communities.

The company plans to begin animal testing in the second quarter of 2020 and is working to push the candidate towards a Phase 1 clinical trial as early as the third quarter of this year.

In 2019, Altimmune acquired Spitfire Pharma, Inc. including the product candidate ALT-801 indicated for the treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). The company expects to begin a Phase 1 clinical trial in 2020.

Altimmune also received $3.7 million in additional funding from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). This funding will support the Phase 1b clinical trial of NasoShield this year to evaluate alternative methods of intranasal dosing in humans.

At December 31, 2019, the company had cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments of $37.3 million.

Altimmune’s stock has gained 80% over the past three months and 10% over the past week.