On May 7, 2020, Tonix Pharmaceuticals and the University of Alberta announced a research collaboration and exclusive licensing agreement for three new vaccines for the prevention of COVID-19, the novel coronavirus disease identified in 2019 which is caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus.

The new collaboration planned to develop three new potential vaccines to protect against COVID-19 based on the horsepox vector platform, but designed to express different SARS-CoV-2 antigens than TNX-1800, which is designed to express SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein.

Under the terms of the research collaboration agreement, Tonix has been granted an exclusive license from the University of Alberta for technology and patents related to TNX-1810, TNX-1820 and TNX-1830.

Tonix was to conduct further studies to test the safety and efficacy of TNX-1810, TNX-1820 and TNX-1830 in preventing COVID-19. TNX-1810, TNX-1820 and TNX-1830 are in the Pre-Investigational New Drug (IND) application stage of development.

TNX-1800 (live modified horsepox virus vaccine for percutaneous administration) is a modified horsepox virus that is designed to express the Spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. TNX-801 is a live virus vaccine based on synthesized horsepox. Horsepox and vaccinia are closely related orthopoxviruses that are believed to share a common ancest