On Jul. 13, 2020, Tonix Pharmaceuticals announced a new preclinical research and option agreement with Kansas State University (K-State) to develop a vaccine candidate for the prevention of COVID-19 that utilizes a novel live virus vaccine vector platform and the CD40-ligand, also known as CD154 or 5c8 antigen, to stimulate T cell immunity.

K-State planned to advance preclinical development of a live replicating virus vaccine to protect against COVID-19 based on bovine parainfluenza virus. Attenuated bovine parainfluenza virus had previously been shown to be an effective antigen delivery vector in humans1-6.