PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa.,
Oct. 21, 2014 /PRNewswire/
-- Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: INO) announced today
the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded
$12.2 million for a collaborative
study that will be conducted by scientists from the Perelman School
of Medicine at the University of
Pennsylvania; Inovio Pharmaceuticals; and MedImmune, the
global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca. The
group will develop DNA-based monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) for
infectious disease treatment. DARPA is an agency of the US
Department of Defense that creates and supports novel technologies
important for national security.
Together, the three organizations will develop and assess the
DNA mAbs in preclinical studies using technology developed by
Penn and licensed by Inovio. The
collaboration will focus on three disease areas – influenza virus,
Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus.
Dr. J. Joseph Kim, Inovio's
President and CEO, said, "Monoclonal antibody technology has
already achieved multiple market-proven product successes, and we
believe DNA-based mAb technology could significantly extend the
medical benefits and efficiency of this concept. In previous
preclinical studies our DNA-based mAbs demonstrated robust virus
neutralization and protected treated animals challenged with a
lethal virus. We look forward to working with our globally
recognized collaborators to advance this potentially paradigm
shifting technology."
MedImmune developed the first mAb approved by the U.S. Food
& Drug Administration for the prevention of an infectious
disease, and Inovio pioneered the development of optimized
DNA-based vaccines and immunotherapies using an efficient delivery
mechanism called electroporation. The project proposes an entirely
new technology, initially developed at Penn in the lab of David
Weiner, PhD, professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine,
to provide a platform to rapidly protect people against emerging
infections through the development of novel synthetic antibodies
produced by the patients themselves.
Over the last few decades, monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have
become one of the most important approaches to treat a variety of
diseases, however they remain expensive and time consuming to
produce and study. They are manufactured outside the body,
typically requiring costly large-scale laboratory development and
production, and also require frequent repeat administrations and
have a limited duration of potency in the body.
DNA-based mAbs have the potential to overcome these limitations
by virtue of their simplified design, product stability,
manufacturing, dosing frequency, and cost effectiveness, thereby
providing potential new avenues for treatment of disease.
The shift seen in new mAb technologies is that the DNA for a
monoclonal antibody is encoded in a DNA plasmid, which is produced
using very cost effective and highly scalable fermentation
techniques. These plasmids are delivered directly into cells of the
body using electroporation and the encoded mAbs are then produced
by these cells. Using this approach, previously published studies
show that a single administration of a highly optimized DNA-based
monoclonal antibody targeting HIV virus in mice generated antibody
molecules in the bloodstream.
This collaboration aims to demonstrate that the DNA plasmids
containing optimized DNA sequences encoded to generate
disease-specific mAbs can activate sufficient quantities of
specific antibodies in the body to be protective against a pathogen
challenge. Using the capabilities and advantages of synthetic DNA
plasmids delivered using electroporation, the team will construct
and evaluate multiple DNA mAbs.
Successful completion of the initial preclinical activities
under the DARPA grant aims to lead to clinical studies on selected
product candidates to be funded under a future increment to the
award.
About Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Inovio is revolutionizing the fight against cancer and
infectious diseases. Our immunotherapies uniquely activate
best-in-class immune responses to prevent and treat disease, and
have shown clinically significant efficacy with a favorable safety
profile. With an expanding portfolio of cancer immunotherapies and
clinical studies, the company is advancing a growing product
pipeline. Partners and collaborators include Roche,
the University of Pennsylvania, NIH, HIV Vaccines Trial
Network, National Cancer Institute, U.S. Military HIV Research
Program, US Dept. of Homeland Security, and University of
Manitoba. For more information, visit www.inovio.com.
This press release contains certain forward-looking
statements relating to our business, including our plans to develop
electroporation-based drug and gene delivery technologies and DNA
vaccines and our capital resources. Actual events or results may
differ from the expectations set forth herein as a result of a
number of factors, including uncertainties inherent in pre-clinical
studies, clinical trials and product development programs
(including, but not limited to, the fact that pre-clinical and
clinical results referenced in this release may not be indicative
of results achievable in other trials or for other indications,
that the studies or trials may not be successful or achieve the
results desired, including safety and efficacy for VGX-3100, that
pre-clinical studies and clinical trials may not commence or be
completed in the time periods anticipated, that results from one
study may not necessarily be reflected or supported by the results
of other similar studies and that results from an animal study may
not be indicative of results achievable in human studies), the
availability of funding to support continuing research and studies
in an effort to prove safety and efficacy of electroporation
technology as a delivery mechanism or develop viable DNA vaccines,
our ability to support our broad pipeline of SynCon®
active immune therapy and vaccine products, the adequacy of our
capital resources, the availability or potential availability of
alternative therapies or treatments for the conditions targeted by
the company or its collaborators, including alternatives that may
be more efficacious or cost-effective than any therapy or treatment
that the company and its collaborators hope to develop, evaluation
of potential opportunities, issues involving product liability,
issues involving patents and whether they or licenses to them will
provide the company with meaningful protection from others using
the covered technologies, whether such proprietary rights are
enforceable or defensible or infringe or allegedly infringe on
rights of others or can withstand claims of invalidity and whether
the company can finance or devote other significant resources that
may be necessary to prosecute, protect or defend them, the level of
corporate expenditures, assessments of the company's technology by
potential corporate or other partners or collaborators, capital
market conditions, the impact of government healthcare proposals
and other factors set forth in our Annual Report on Form 10-K
for the year ended December 31, 2013, our Form 10-Q for the
quarter ended June 30, 2014, and
other regulatory filings from time to time. There can be no
assurance that any product in Inovio's pipeline will be
successfully developed or manufactured, that final results of
clinical studies will be supportive of regulatory approvals
required to market licensed products, or that any of the
forward-looking information provided herein will be proven
accurate.
CONTACTS:
|
|
Investors:
|
Bernie Hertel, Inovio
Pharmaceuticals, 858-410-3101, bhertel@inovio.com
|
Media:
|
Jeff Richardson,
Inovio Pharmaceuticals, 267-440-4211,
jrichardson@inovio.com
|
Logo -
http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20131118/LA18202LOGO
To view the original version on PR Newswire,
visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/inovio-pharmaceuticals-medimmune-and-the-university-of-pennsylvania-partner-to-combat-influenza-and-antibiotic-resistant-bacteria-200219379.html
SOURCE Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc.