Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE Amex: INO), a leader in the development of therapeutic and preventive vaccines against cancers and infectious diseases, announced today that a scientific paper demonstrating strong and protective immune responses from candidate SynCon™ DNA vaccines in preclinical studies using Inovio's intradermal (ID) DNA delivery technology was one of the top cited scientific articles in the past three years in the journal Vaccine. The article, "Intradermal/subcutaneous immunization by electroporation improves plasmid vaccine delivery and potency in pigs and rhesus macaques," appeared in the January 2008 edition of the journal Vaccine, whose editors tracked citations of all papers published in their journal. Dr. David B. Weiner, Professor of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Chairman of Inovio's Scientific Advisory Board, was the lead author of the paper.
“Intradermal/subcutaneous immunization by electroporation improves plasmid vaccine delivery and potency in pigs and rhesus macaques”
Inovio's delivery technology applies controlled, millisecond electrical pulses to create permeability in the membrane of cells (electroporation), enabling dramatic uptake into the cells of biological material such as a DNA vaccine. Inovio's electroporation systems have been shown to increase cellular uptake of a vaccine 1000-fold or more and to increase levels of gene expression (production of the antigen coded by the DNA vaccine) up to 100-fold. These systems have been shown to be safe and well-tolerated in multiple human studies.
Inovio's clinical studies of electroporation-based delivery of DNA vaccines into muscle of prostate and cervical cancer patients have been among the first to demonstrate generation of potent antigen-specific antibody responses in humans. Inovio has also demonstrated that its SynCon™ DNA vaccines delivered using its new skin (ID/subcutaneous) electroporation delivery device elicited potent neutralizing antibody responses that have protected animals in influenza and smallpox challenge models.
Inovio's skin electroporation device includes a patented design that introduces a miniaturized array size and further optimization of electroporation conditions. A recent controlled study conducted in human volunteers showed that tolerability of this device was similar to conventional syringe-delivered vaccines. Inovio believes these important design outcomes could make such devices suitable for widely applicable preventive vaccine regimens against infectious diseases such as influenza, dengue and malaria. Inovio will employ this technology to deliver INO-3510, an initial version of its universal SynConTM DNA vaccine for influenza, consisting of the H5N1 and H1N1 subtypes, in a Phase I clinical trial beginning next year. The universal flu program will be funded in part by a recent grant from the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. J. Joseph Kim, Inovio's President & CEO, said, "We're pleased at the recognition from scientists around the world of our DNA vaccine delivery technology as demonstrated by the number of times it was cited in other scientific papers worldwide. We're also proud of our longstanding and fruitful relationship with Dr. David Weiner. David is a pioneer in the field of DNA vaccines and continues to be at the forefront of new research and development to advance this important field of medicine."
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