TFF Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced that, in collaboration with Cleveland Clinic, the Company is advancing multiple multivalent universal influenza vaccines to protect against seasonal and pandemic viruses into preclinical testing. The decision to advance the vaccine candidates into preclinical testing was based upon the successful completion of formulation testing with stability data on the combination of hemagglutinin (HA) antigens with four different adjuvants. Based on these data, three HA antigen/adjuvant candidate vaccines have been selected for testing in a pre-clinical model at Cleveland Clinic Florida.

Funded through the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the purpose of the research collaboration between TFF Pharmaceuticals and Cleveland Clinic is to develop a first-in-class, stable, universal, easy-to-transport and easy-to-stockpile vaccine that would overcome the vaccine failures that result from mishandling, mismatches between predicted and actual seasonal flu strains, and evolutionary changes in influenza viruses across the season. Successful completion of the work funded by the Direct to Phase II SBIR grant will fulfill the IND-enabling requirements to potentially advance to human clinical testing.