ARCT-021, also known as LUNAR-COV19, is a

COVID-19 vaccine A COVID19 vaccine is a vaccine intended to provide acquired immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 ( COVID19). Knowledge about the structure and fun ...

candidate developed by

Arcturus Therapeutics Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc. is an American RNA medicines biotechnology company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of therapeutics for rare diseases and infectious diseases. Arcturus has developed proprietary lipid ...

Medical uses

It requires the

intramuscular injection Intramuscular injection, often abbreviated IM, is the medical injection, injection of a substance into a muscle. In medicine, it is one of several methods for parenteral, parenteral administration of medications. Intramuscular injection may be ...

with a single dose.

Pharmacology

ARCT-021 is an self-amplifying

mRNA vaccine An mRNA vaccine is a type of vaccine that uses a copy of a molecule called messenger RNA (mRNA) to produce an immune response. The vaccine delivers molecules of antigen-encoding mRNA into cells, which use the designed mRNA as a blueprint to b ...

History

Arcturus Therapeutics partnered with Singapore's

Duke–NUS Medical School The Duke–NUS Medical School (Duke–NUS) is a graduate medical school in Singapore. Established in April 2005 as the Duke–NUS Graduate Medical School, it is Singapore's second medical school (after the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and ...

to develop a

. The company also partnered with

Catalent Catalent, Inc. (Catalent Pharma Solutions), is an American multinational company, and a subsidiary of Novo Holdings A/S since 2024. It is headquartered in Somerset, New Jersey. It is a provider of drug delivery technologies, drug development, ...

, a contract development and manufacturing organization, to manufacture multiple batches of Arcturus' COVID-19

candidate.

Clinical trials

LUNAR-COV19 clinical trials in humans began in July 2020. On 4 January 2021, Arcturus Therapeutics started Phase-2 clinical trials.

Economics

Arcturus has entered into development and supply agreements with the Economic Development Board of Singapore and supply agreements with the Israel Ministry of Health for LUNAR-COV19.

References

External links

Clinical trials related to COVID-19 American COVID-19 vaccines Singaporean COVID-19 vaccines RNA vaccines 2020 in medicine {{vaccine-stub