SAN DIEGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc. (the “Company”, “Arcturus”, Nasdaq: ARCT), a leading clinical-stage messenger RNA medicines company focused on the development of infectious disease vaccines and significant opportunities within liver and respiratory rare diseases, today announced that the Company has received allowance of the Investigational New Drug (IND) application from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the Phase 2 clinical study of its vaccine candidate ARCT-021 following review of data from the Phase 1/2 study.

Arcturus Therapeutics Receives FDA Allowance to Proceed with Phase 2 Study of ARCT-021 (LUNAR-COV19) Vaccine Candidate in the United States

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Arcturus previously announced that the ARCT-021 Phase 2 study had been approved to proceed by the Singapore Health Sciences Authority (HSA), who reviewed the same data as reviewed by the FDA. These Phase 1/2 study results demonstrated favorable tolerability and both humoral and cellular immunogenicity following administration of ARCT-021.

The Phase 2 study will enroll 600 participants, with 450 receiving ARCT-021 and 150 receiving placebo. Both older and younger adult participants will be included. Early interim analyses of safety and immunogenicity will be performed to inform dose selection for a Phase 3 study, which is targeted to start in Q2 2021, if the Phase 2 study is successful.

“Allowance of the IND for our ARCT-021 Phase 2 clinical study represents an important milestone for the program and we look forward to starting to screen study participants at U.S. and Singapore clinical sites very soon,” said Steve Hughes, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of Arcturus. “We have advanced ARCT-021 to Phase 2 based on promising interim results from our Phase 1/2 study and extensive preclinical data. Our prior clinical results show that ARCT-021 administration results in humoral and cellular immunogenicity, and we are encouraged by an increasing body of evidence highlighting the potential importance of T cells in providing protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19. We believe that ARCT-021 holds promise to be a highly effective vaccine with a differentiated clinical profile, including the potential to only require a single dose for protection.”

About Arcturus Therapeutics

Founded in 2013 and based in San Diego, California, Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: ARCT) is a clinical-stage mRNA medicines and vaccines company with enabling technologies: (i) LUNAR® lipid-mediated delivery, (ii) STARR™ mRNA Technology and (iii) mRNA drug substance along with drug product manufacturing expertise. Arcturus’ diverse pipeline of RNA therapeutic and vaccine candidates includes self-replicating mRNA vaccine programs for SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) and Influenza, and other programs to potentially treat Ornithine Transcarbamylase (OTC) Deficiency, Cystic Fibrosis, and Cardiovascular Disease along with partnered programs including Glycogen Storage Disease Type 3, Hepatitis B Virus, and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Arcturus’ versatile RNA therapeutics platforms can be applied toward multiple types of nucleic acid medicines including messenger RNA, small interfering RNA, replicon RNA, antisense RNA, microRNA, DNA, and gene editing therapeutics. Arcturus’ technologies are covered by its extensive patent portfolio (205 patents and patent applications, issued in the U.S., Europe, Japan, China and other countries). Arcturus’ commitment to the development of novel RNA therapeutics has led to collaborations with Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., part of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical, Inc., Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, CureVac AG, Synthetic Genomics Inc., Duke-NUS Medical School, and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. For more information visit www.ArcturusRx.com. In addition, please connect with us on Twitter and LinkedIn.