What is Vaxart, and what is the mission of Vaxart?

Vaxart is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing a range of oral recombinant vaccines based on its proprietary delivery platform. Our mission is to revolutionize public health by delivering critical vaccines by a pill, rather than an injection. Literally, our pills would move the needle out of the equation because all you would need is the pill and a glass of water to take them with, no clinics, no lines, no needles.

Vaxart vaccines are designed to be administered using pills that can be stored and shipped without refrigeration and eliminate the risk of needle-stick injury. Vaxart believes that its proprietary pill vaccine delivery platform is suitable to deliver recombinant vaccines, positioning the company to develop oral versions of currently marketed vaccines and to design recombinant vaccines for new indications. Vaxart’s development programs currently include pill vaccines designed to protect against coronavirus, norovirus, seasonal influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), as well as a therapeutic vaccine for human papillomavirus (HPV), Vaxart’s first immuneoncology indication. Vaxart has filed broad domestic and international patent applications covering its proprietary technology and creations for oral vaccination using adenovirus and TLR3 agonists.

What is VAAST?

The proprietary VAAST™ oral vaccine platform uses state-of-the-art recombinant technology that allows modular creation of a wide range of vaccines.

Vaxart uses a specific virus called adenovirus type 5 (Ad5) as part of its novel VAAST™ platform to help train our immune system to recognize and defeat dangerous Invading pathogens. Vaxart recombinantly removes the DNA Ad5 uses for viral replication, so the virus cannot make copies of itself.

Vaxart then uses the disabled Ad5 virus as a delivery system, or “vector,” to carry the genes coding for the “antigen,” a component of the target virus that is known to generate a protective immune response, and the “adjuvant,” a molecule that stimulates the innate immune system. The Ad5 vector delivers these two genes to the epithelial cells lining the mucosa of the small bowel.

When the altered Ad5 virus enters a cell and delivers the genes for the antigen and the adjuvant, the genes are expressed, and the cell manufactures the vaccine antigen for the immune system to recognize, as well as the adjuvant, which stimulates the immune system to mount a targeted response against the vaccine antigen.

These two molecules “teach” the immune system to recognize the antigen, a specific component of the pathogen. The next time the same antigen appears in the body as part of a new infection, the immune system is prepared to mount a rapid and overwhelming response.

Can you provide a brief overview of your inception story and what motivated you to start Vaxart Inc?

Our founder, Dr. Sean Tucker, hated waiting on line to get flu shots and decided to find a better way to vaccinate people. He started out with three others in a San Francisco loft that had been used by a defunct tech company. The kitchen was the first laboratory. From the beginning, Vaxart has been on a mission to make the world a healthier place by getting more people vaccinated using easy-to-get, easy-to-take oral tablets that trigger broader immune responses in the body’s mucosal and systemic areas. All you would need is a pill and a glass of water.

How do you differentiate between traditional vaccines and pill-based vaccines?

For roughly two centuries, virtually the only way a person could get vaccinated was by getting an injection. Our pill changes that in a potentially revolutionary way.

Field research Vaxart has done and scholarly research at the Oxford University and the University of Guelph have all found that some people are so afraid of injections – needle-phobic – that they’d rather not get the protection offered by an injected vaccine and take their chances on getting sick.

Vaxart’s 2021 field research found that about a quarter of Americans said they are available, they would have gotten vaccinated. That would have translated to about another 20 million Americans vaccinated at a time resistance to vaccination was high.

Injected vaccines are archaic. A pill vaccine is the future and we are working to bring tomorrow’s medicine to you today.

What work culture does your company follow, and how do you stay updated on industry developments?

 We have a culture of rigorous inquiry and we encourage curiosity. Our goal is to create something that doesn’t yet exist, so our culture is geared toward exploration, experimentation, and discovery.

Can you provide our readers with a synopsis of your founder and your team?

Our Founder Dr. Sean Tucker is the Founder of Vaxart and has served as its Chief Scientific Officer since February 2010. From March 2004 to February 2010, Sean served as Vice President of Research and Director of Immunology. He has held numerous scientific and engineering roles at various biotechnology companies. Sean has a BSc. in chemical engineering from the University of Washington, an MSc. in chemical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Ph.D. in immunology from the University of Washington.

Our CEO, Steven Lo is a highly experienced biopharma executive with over 25 years of experience in the healthcare, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical industries, including over 12 years of C-level experience in publicly traded biotech companies.

Prior to Vaxart, Mr. Lo was Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board of directors of Valitor, a private biotech company, from 2022 to 2024. From 2019 to 2022, he was the President, Chief Executive Officer and member of the board of directors of Zosano Pharma. From 2015 to 2019, he was the Chief Commercial Officer at Puma Biotechnology. At that company, he built and led business development and the worldwide commercialization of the company’s first product. Prior to that, he was Chief Commercial Officer of Corcept Therapeutics, where he established the commercial organization to launch the company’s first product. Earlier in his career, he spent 13 years at Genentech in a variety of leadership roles in commercialization and market access.

Mr. Lo obtained a Master’s in Health Administration from the University of Southern California and a B.S. in Microbiology from the University of California, Davis.

“Making the world a better and safer place, one pill at a time.”

“Our mission is to make the world a better and safer place by developing transformative vaccines against common viral infections”