PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa.,
Jan. 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Inovio
Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:INO) today announced the appointment
of Jay Shepard to its Board of
Directors. Mr. Shepard brings broad healthcare and financial
experience to the board given his tenure as CEO of several biotech
companies, his multiple corporate board appointments and his
expertise as a healthcare venture capitalist.
Dr. J. Joseph Kim, Inovio's
President & CEO said, "We are fortunate to have Jay Shepard join Inovio's Board of Directors.
Jay's expertise in health care, corporate financing and M&A in
the industry will be an asset to our company as we execute on our
strategic deliverables in the next year and the next decade."
Inovio also announced the retirement of Mort Collins from its Board. Dr. Collins had
been a founding Board member of Inovio's predecessor, VGX
Pharmaceuticals.
Regarding Mort Collins, Dr. Kim
said, "For nearly two decades Mort has been a guiding hand for
Inovio helping us grow and make the right choices in science and
business. For me, Mort has been more than a corporate board member.
He has been a mentor to me and a strong voice I've relied on to
manage innovation as we develop and commercialize our DNA
medicines."
About Jay Shepard
Mr. Shepard is currently Non-executive Chairman and formerly
President and Chief Executive Officer of Aravive, a clinical-stage
biopharmaceutical company developing treatments designed to halt
the progression of life-threatening diseases, including cancer and
fibrosis. Previously, Mr. Shepard was an Executive Partner at
Sofinnova Ventures, a healthcare venture capital firm. Before that
he also served as President and Chief Executive Officer and was a
member of the board of directors of NextWave Pharmaceuticals, Inc.,
a specialty pharmaceutical company developing and commercializing
unique pediatric products utilizing proprietary drug delivery
technology that was acquired by Pfizer, Inc. Mr. Shepard has also
served as President and Chief Executive Officer and a member of the
board of directors of Ilypsa, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company
pioneering novel non-absorbed polymeric drugs for renal and
metabolic disorders that was acquired by Amgen. Mr. Shepard has
held board appointments for numerous public and private companies,
including Ilypsa, Inc., Relypsa, Inc., Intermune, Inc., Bullet
Biotechnology, Inc., Marinus Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Durect
Corporation. Currently, Mr. Shepard serves on the board of
directors of Esperion Therapeutics, Inc., a pharmaceutical company,
and of the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation. Mr. Shepard
holds a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Arizona.
About Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Inovio is a biotechnology company focused on rapidly bringing to
market precisely designed DNA medicines to treat, cure and/or
protect people from diseases associated with HPV, cancer, and
infectious diseases. Inovio is the first and only company to have
clinically demonstrated that a DNA medicine can be delivered
directly into cells in the body via a proprietary smart device to
safely produce a robust immune response to destroy and clear
high-risk HPV 16 and 18, which are responsible for 70% of cervical
cancer, 90% of anal cancer and 69% of vulvar cancer. In addition to
HPV, Inovio's optimized plasmid design and delivery technology has
been demonstrated to consistently activate robust and fully
functional T cell and antibody responses against targeted cancers
and pathogens. Inovio's most advanced clinical program, VGX-3100,
is in Phase 3 development for the treatment of HPV-related cervical
pre-cancer. Also in development are Phase 2 immuno-oncology
programs targeting HPV-related cancers and GBM, as well as
externally funded platform development programs in Zika, MERS,
Lassa, and HIV. Partners and collaborators include ApolloBio
Corporation, AstraZeneca, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,
Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency, GeneOne Life Science, HIV
Vaccines Trial Network, Medical CBRN Defense Consortium (MCDC),
National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Regeneron,
Roche/Genentech, University of
Pennsylvania, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, and
The Wistar Institute. For more information, visit
www.inovio.com.
This press release contains certain forward-looking
statements relating to our business, including our plans to develop
DNA medicines, our expectations regarding our research and
development programs, as well as commercialization activities,
including the planned initiation and conduct of clinical trials,
the availability and timing of data from those trials and our
commercialization strategy and tactics. 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, product development programs and
commercialization activities and outcomes, 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 pipeline of SynCon® active immunotherapy and vaccine
products, the ability of our collaborators to attain development
and commercial milestones for products we license and product sales
that will enable us to receive future payments and royalties, the
adequacy of our capital resources, the availability or potential
availability of alternative therapies or treatments for the
conditions targeted by us or our collaborators, including
alternatives that may be more efficacious or cost effective than
any therapy or treatment that we and our collaborators hope to
develop, issues involving product liability, issues involving
patents and whether they or licenses to them will provide us 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 we can finance or devote other
significant resources that may be necessary to prosecute, protect
or defend them, the level of corporate expenditures, assessments of
our 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, 2018, our Quarterly Report on Form
10-Q for the quarter ended September 30,
2019, and other filings we make from time to time with the
Securities and Exchange Commission. There can be no assurance that
any product candidate in our pipeline will be successfully
developed, manufactured or commercialized, that final results of
clinical trials will be supportive of regulatory approvals required
to market products, or that any of the forward-looking information
provided herein will be proven accurate. Forward-looking statements
speak only as of the date of this release, and we undertake no
obligation to update or revise these statements, except as may be
required by law.
CONTACTS:
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Investors:
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Ben Matone,
484-362-0076, ben.matone@inovio.com
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Media:
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Jeff Richardson,
267-440-4211, jrichardson@inovio.com
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SOURCE Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc.