Inovio Signs Collaboration Agreement With NIH’s Vaccine Research Center

Inovio has sealed a research collaboration agreement with the National Institutes of Health (NIH)’s Vaccine Research Center (VRC), to develop influenza vaccines.

Under the agreement, VRC and Inovio will pool technologies to develop universal influenza vaccines as well as advance development of vaccine candidates targeting the emerging pandemic 2009 H1N1 swine flu strains.

Reportedly, the studies with the VRC – electroporation-based delivery of novel DNA vaccines against influenza, will be tested in pre-clinical animal studies to measure immune and protective responses.

Inovio will provide electroporation devices and procedures based on its proprietary intradermal electroporation technology.

Inovio and VRC will provide DNA vaccine plasmids encoding influenza antigens. Challenge studies in animal models and immunological analyses will be performed at the VRC, and both Inovio and the VRC will evaluate the results. Successful completion of the pre-clinical evaluation may lead to selection of vaccine candidates for further clinical development.

Joseph Kim, CEO of Inovio, said: “We are pleased to share technology and collaborate with the VRC in the development of universal influenza vaccines. There is a public health need to rapidly develop vaccines targeting the swine origin influenza A/H1N1 in particular and, more generally, to develop universal influenza vaccines. This agreement further expands our global collaboration network for influenza vaccines.”