VGX Pharmaceuticals wins $23.5 million NIH contract

The contract was awarded to VGX under the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’s HIV Vaccine Design and Development Teams program and brings together HIV vaccine experts from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and VGX. The contract provides $23.5 million of funding over seven years.

The DNA-based vaccine will be delivered using VGX’s novel intradermal electroporation technology. This program expands VGX’s portfolio of candidate HIV vaccines. The Pennvax-B vaccine (targeting HIV clade B) is presently in two Phase I clinical trials.

The funding of VGX and the proposed development program covers preclinical optimization, immunogenicity and challenge studies in animal models, IND-enabling toxicology studies, cGMP-manufacturing of all components of the DNA vaccine and Cellectra-ID-EP device, and the conduct of a Phase I human clinical trial. The principal investigator for the contract is Niranjan Sardesai, VGX’s senior vice president of R&D.

Joseph Kim, president and CEO of VGX, said: “This contract substantiates the National Institutes of Health’s endorsement of VGX’s approach to DNA vaccines and their delivery via our proprietary in vivo electroporation technology. HIV remains a challenging and tremendously important area of medical research, and we value the National Institutes of Health’s support to further evaluate the immunogenicity and efficacy of our electroporation delivery system and novel preventive HIV vaccine candidate.”