Translate Bio (NASDAQ:TBIO) has announced its Q3 2020 financial results in which collaboration revenue was $66.4 million driven by the Sanofi collaboration. The company also reviewed its corporate achievements and business updates.
Leveraging mRNA and lung delivery capabilities to deliver CF treatment
Ronald Renaud, the company’s CEO, said that Translate Bio continues to leverage its mRNA and lung delivery capabilities in advancing its tech to address unmet treatment needs in CF and pulmonary diseases. He said that the company resumed enrolment and dosing in the Phase 1/2 clinical MRT5005 study with encouraging preclinical data from the next-generation CF program. Renaud said that Translate Bio has continued to show its commitment to developing a treatment for CF patients, especially those non-amenable to modulator treatments.
The CEO also said that the company had made considerable progress in the mRNA infectious disease vaccine program under the Sanofi Pasteur collaboration. He also said that they are delighted to provide initial positive preclinical data from the COVID19 vaccine program, MRT5500, which the company is looking to advance into the clinic.
Translate Bio has been expanding its research and development footprint, and in November it entered a lease agreement for laboratory space and new office. The additional space will help the company build upon its capabilities with a focus on advancing platform information and also drive multiple programs into clinical development.
Translate Bio advancing COVID-19 vaccine
On October 2020 the company in collaboration with Sanofi Pasteur released encouraging preclinical data for MRT5500, its lead COVID-19 mRNA vaccine candidate. Preclinical results indicated that MRT5500 induced strong neutralizing antibodies against the coronavirus at levels higher than those seen on samples from COVID-19 patients. The data supported MRT500 selection for clinical development with phase 1/2 clinical study, which was to commence in Q4 2020 has been pushed to Q1 2021 because of delays in clinical material manufacture.
The company presented mRNA clinical and preclinical products candidate data at the 34th Annual North American Cystic Fibrosis Conference underscoring the remaining unmet treatment need of CF.
