Partners
In May 2004, Merck & Co. licensed Inovio's electroporation-based DNA delivery technology to use in conjunction with proprietary DNA vaccine candidates. The agreement granted Merck worldwide non-exclusive rights to use Inovio's electroporation technology for intramuscular delivery of certain proprietary DNA vaccines. The deal involves upfront and milestone payments, development fees, royalties, and a supply agreement.
- Merck files first Investigational New Drug application, triggering a $2M milestone payment.
- Merck's first clinical program.
- Merck's files IND for a second DNA vaccine, triggering another $2M milestone payment.
- Merck's second clinical program.
The University of Southampton (UK) is advancing an investigator-sponsored clinical study using Inovio's technology in conjunction with a DNA-based vaccine against prostate cancer.
- Southampton's clinical program.
- Significant antibody response in humans reported at international vaccine conference.
- Significant T-cell response in humans reported in scientific paper published in Nature Reviews Cancer.
Tripep AS is advancing a Phase I/II clinical study for a hepatic C virus DNA vaccine using Inovio's DNA delivery technology.
The HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) is an international collaboration of scientists and educators searching for an effective and safe HIV vaccine. The HVTN's mission is to facilitate the process of testing preventive vaccines against HIV/AIDS. Our organization conducts all phases of clinical trials, from evaluating experimental vaccines for safety and the ability to stimulate immune responses, to testing vaccine efficacy.
HVTN is currently funding and conducting clinical trials of Inovio's PENNVAX™-B HIV DNA vaccine candidate.
Inovio (through VGX Pharmaceuticals, with which it merged on June 1, 2009) entered into an original research agreement with the University of Pennsylvania on December 22, 2005. It entered into a subsequent license for exclusive worldwide rights to develop a number of DNA plasmids and constructs with the potential to treat and/or prevent HIV, HCV, HPV and influenza, and an amended agreement adding novel adjuvants to enhance the effectiveness of DNA vaccines. The underlying technology was developed in the laboratory of Professor David B. Weiner at the University of Pennsylvania. Professor Weiner is a pioneer in the field of DNA vaccines.
The University of Pennsylvania is conducting a clinical trial of Inovio's PENNVAX™-B HIV DNA vaccine, without electroporation, in a therapeutic setting.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health is supporting HIV DNA vaccine research being conducted by Inovio. The NIAID contract, announced October 1, 2008, provides $23.5 million of funding over seven years, including a base period and follow-on option years, to Inovio's PENNVAX™-G vaccine candidate targeting HIV clades A, C, and D, and its novel intradermal electroporation (ID-EP) technology.
The PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) is a global program of the international nonprofit organization PATH. MVI was established in 1999 through a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
PATH MVI is assessing Inovio's SynCon® DNA vaccine development platform with respect to malaria.
USAMRIID, located at Fort Detrick, Maryland, is the lead medical research laboratory for the U.S. Biological Defense Research Program, and plays a key role in national defense and infectious disease research. The Institute's mission is to conduct basic and applied research on biological threats resulting in medical solutions (such as vaccines, drugs and diagnostics) to protect the warfighter. USAMRIID is conducting research using Inovio's electroporation technology.
- US Army demonstrates protection from possible biological warfare agent in pre-clinical research.
- Inovio receives third appropriation of US Dept. of Defense funding for US Army research.
Inovio established an agreement with the National Cancer Institute to assess novel HIV constructs in non-human primates, cytokine genes as vaccine adjuvants (immune system stimulants), and possibly anticancer therapies delivered using Inovio's electroporation-mediated DNA delivery technology.