Stock Alert: IMV Shares Soar 20% In Premarket

(RTTNews) - Shares of IMV Inc. (IMV) are surging over 20% in pre-market today, after the company announced selection of a vaccine candidate against COVID-19 to advance into human clinical studies.

The company, today, announced positive preclinical results demonstrating robust immunogenic and antibody responses from the majority of peptide epitopes. Based on these data, the company has selected multiple peptide epitopes to be formulated within its DPX platform to form a vaccine candidate against the novel coronavirus, DPX-COVID-19.

"These preclinical data are highly encouraging, showing that peptides formulated within the DPX platform have induced early and strong immunogenic response in an animal model. Notably, the antibody responses observed were equivalent or superior to levels achieved with DPX-RSV, which delivered a robust and sustained immune response in a Phase 1 study," said Marianne Stanford, Vice President Research and Development at IMV.

In April, IMV conducted a pre-Clinical Trial Application or CTA meeting with Health Canada and is finalizing a design for a Phase 1 clinical study of DPX-COVID-19. The randomized, placebo-controlled study is expected to enroll about 84 healthy subjects in two age strata and to assess two different doses of DPX-COVID-19. The company noted that it is on track to initiate this study in the summer of 2020.

The stock has been trading in the range of $1.35 - $5.12 for the past one year, and closed Wednesday's trade at $3.32, down 1 cent or 0.30%. IMV is currently trading at $4.00, up 68 cents or 20.48%.