A biotech de­vel­op­ing a syn­thet­ic bi­ol­o­gy Covid-19 vac­cine comes up short in first da­ta read­out — and in­vestors are flee­ing

One of the biotechs bet­ting on its vac­cine plat­form prov­ing use­ful in the long-term fight against Covid-19 re­port­ed a new batch of da­ta Fri­day morn­ing, and it’s not mak­ing many in­vestors hap­py.

Seat­tle-based Icosavax said that one of its “virus-like par­ti­cle” pro­grams aim­ing to pro­tect against SARS-CoV-2 came in “be­low ex­pec­ta­tions” in an in­ter­im Phase I/II analy­sis. The com­pa­ny says it plans to in­ves­ti­gate why the re­sults did not match what it had seen in pre­clin­i­cal stud­ies.

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