Tonix Pharmaceuticals Corp (NASDAQ: TNXP) was up 25% after announcing that the US Patent and Trademark Office gave it a US Patent No. 11,342,896 on May 31, 2022. The patent is titled “Synthetic Chimeric Poxviruses,” It covers the synthetic horsepox virus, which is the basis of the TNX-801 vaccine the company is developing for smallpox and monkeypox, the Recombinant Pox Virus platform, which protects against pathogens like SARS.
The patent gives Tonix commercial exclusivity in the US
This patent is intended to provide Tonix commercial monopoly in the United States until 2037, excluding any conceivable patent rights extensions or changes. The patent is a significant step in safeguarding the company’s growing portfolio of vaccines against existing and potentially new viruses.
CEO Tonix Pharmaceuticals Seth Lederman said:
TNX-801 is a horsepox-based live virus vaccine currently in development to protect against monkeypox and smallpox. In addition, TNX-18401 and TNX-18501 are designed to express the spike proteins from the SARS-CoV-2 omicron and BA.2 variants, respectively. Horsepox was one of the first few viruses ever generated by synthetic biology and remains among the largest.
Leaderman added that they are excited to receive the new patent, which is part of the company’s patent estate, as they advance the horsepox-based live virus vaccines to clinical development.
TNX-801 is a synthesized horsepox live virus vaccine the company is developing for percutaneous administration against smallpox and monkeypox. The company had previously reported encouraging results from the monkeypox challenge study in animal models.
Tonix is developing COVID-19 vaccines, TNX-1850 and TNX-1840.
Besides TNX-801, the company is also developing TNX-1850 and TNX-1840 for protection against COVID-19. Tonix has designed TNX-1840 and TNX-1850 to show the spike protein in the BA.2 and Omicron variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Tonix had previously announced encouraging results from the SARS-CoV-2 challenge trial in non-human apes. The animals were inoculated with the horsepox-based TNX-1800 vaccine that expresses the Wuhan strain’s spike protein.
The horsepox virus and the vaccines based on it as a vehicle are live replicating viruses eliciting robust responses. These viruses, such as horsepox and vaccinia, can be genetically modified to show foreign genes and have been used in vaccine platforms.
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