Benzinga | Mar 15, 2021 09:11AM EDT

Aeterna Zentaris Shares Are Trading Higher On Announcing Licensing Pact For Development Of Prophylactic COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate

Aeterna Zentaris Inc (NASDAQ: AEZS) has exercised its option announced on February 2, and entered into an exclusive worldwide sub-licensable patent and know-how license agreement for a potential COVID-19 vaccine.

* The vaccine is currently in preclinical development and was invented at the Julius-Maximilians-University in Wuerzburg.

* Additionally, the Company has entered into a research agreement with the University to conduct supplementary research activities and preclinical development studies on the potential vaccine.

* The vaccine technology uses the approved typhoid fever vaccine Salmonella Typhi Ty21a as a carrier strain. It has the potential to be an orally active, live-attenuated bacterial vaccine to prevent COVID-19 infection.

* The Company will pay an up-front payment of (euro)140,000, certain milestones payments, sales milestones, and a percentage of any sub-licensing revenue.

* Recently, AEZS obtained an exclusive license from The University of Sheffield, the U.K., to parathyroid hormone fusion polypeptides, which will initially be studied for primary hypoparathyroidism.

* Price Action: AEZS shares increased 15.3% at $1.36 in premarket trading on the last check Monday.