Vaxart Seeks Clarity After BARDA Suspends Funding for Oral COVID-19 Vaccine Project Again

BARDA (Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority) has issued a new stop work order to Vaxart, halting funding and further activity on its Phase IIb oral COVID-19 vaccine trial, as of early August 2025123.

The total potential BARDA funding for the project was approximately $460.7 million, with the amount available for payment rising to $240.1 million after an additional $105.9 million was committed in February 202513.

This decision follows a series of reversals:
a stop work order in February 2025 (leading to layoffs at Vaxart), followed by a lifting of that order in April 2025 that allowed the trial to resume and participant screening to restart2345.

Vaxart's trial had recruited about half of the targeted 10,000 participants when the recent funding was withdrawn1.

Federal health officials attribute the latest stop work order to a broader wind-down of mRNA-based vaccine development activities, although Vaxart's oral vaccine is not an mRNA product (it uses an mRNA vaccine as a control in the trial)23.

The HHS (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) press release about the overall wind-down of vaccine development was cited as the justification for the stop order; no specific explanation directly linked to Vaxart was provided by officials23.

Vaxart is actively seeking more information about the rationale for the stop work order and the future of its government-supported vaccine development program3.

Participants already dosed in the study will continue with protocol-specified follow-up, but expansion or further dosing has been halted23.

Sources:

1. https://www.biopharminternational.com/view/after-mrna-rollback-barda-pulls-plug-on-vaxart-oral-covid-vaccine-trial

2. https://www.pharmtech.com/view/barda-pulls-plug-on-vaxart-oral-covid-vaccine-trial-after-mrna-rollback

3. https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/vaxart-seeks-answers-barda-funding-stop-start-vaccine-project-dries-again

4. https://firstwordpharma.com/story/5953799

5. https://cen.acs.org/pharmaceuticals/vaccines/US-halts-funding-new-COVID/103/web/2025/04