BURNABY, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Symvivo Corporation today announced that it is receiving advisory services and funding of up to $2.8 million from the National Research Council Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP) to support the clinical advancement of bacTRL-Spike™, the company’s oral, room temperature-stable DNA vaccine candidate for the prevention of COVID-19.

The funding follows a notification Symvivo received from the Government of Canada indicating it had reviewed Symvivo’s proposal and its bacTRL-Spike™ vaccine candidate had met the required scientific and technical thresholds for funding.

“We are excited to receive this important funding from NRC IRAP for the development of our COVID-19 vaccine candidate,” said Alexander Graves, president and CEO of Symvivo Corporation. “It is our hope that the promise shown with bacTRL-Spike in preclinical models, particularly its ability to generate a mucosal immune response, will continue in first-in-human trials. We are grateful to the NRC for supporting further investigation of bacTRL-Spike as we initiate our first Phase I trial of the vaccine candidate this quarter.”

Unlike traditional vaccines, bacTRL-Spike™ is a capsule that can be taken orally, allowing individuals to self-administer the vaccine rather than requiring a trained medical professional to deliver it with an injection. In addition, the capsules can also be stored at room temperature.

About Symvivo

Symvivo is a clinical-stage biotechnology company advancing a proprietary platform for the site specific delivery of genes for the treatment and prevention of disease. Symvivo’s bacTRL platform technology delivers plasmid DNA, both orally and through IV application, that enables a patient’s own cells to produce therapeutic proteins. Symvivo is advancing therapeutics in the area of oral DNA vaccines, oncology, immunology and gene replacement. Symvivo is headquartered in Burnaby BC. For more information visit www.Symvivo.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201020005222/en/