Inovio Biomedical (Inovio) has initiated phase I clinical study of Pennvax-B preventive DNA vaccine delivered using its proprietary electroporation technology. The multi-center study will be conducted at several HVTN clinical sites under a protocol designated HVTN-080.
Reportedly, the study will enroll healthy volunteers to assess the safety of and immune responses to this DNA-based vaccine delivered via in vivo electroporation.
Inovio previously reported data from non-human primates demonstrating up to a 100-fold enhancement in immune responses resulting from the vaccine when delivered via in vivo electroporation compared to syringe injection without electroporation.
The company has said that Pennvax-B is currently in a clinical study, being conducted under the HVTN-070 protocol by the same group of collaborators; to test safety and immunogenicity of the vaccine delivered via intramuscular syringe injection without electroporation. The HVTN-080 follow-on study is sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), an NIH agency.
Joseph Kim, president and CEO of Inovio, said: “We are pleased to collaborate with the NIH and HVTN to test the SynCon Pennvax-B HIV vaccine delivered via electroporation. With our recently announced positive interim immunogenicity data from our clinical trial for our human papillomavirus/cervical cancer DNA vaccine using a similar technology approach, we are optimistic that electroporation delivery of Pennvax-B vaccine will demonstrate similar levels of safety and immunogenicity in this trial.”