Prostate: INO-5150
Market Potential
The development of a new treatment for prostate cancer would be a significant medical advancement given that present treatment options (surgery, radiation and hormone deprivation), while somewhat effective, all carry deleterious side effects and often do not confer long-term cure. Across the United States, there were 218,000 new cases of prostate cancer and more than 32,000 deaths in 2010.
Technical
While current prostate cancer therapies target single antigens, Inovio is advancing a dual-antigen DNA vaccine targeting PSA and PSMA. This vaccine is administered with Inovio's electroporation-based delivery technology. The objective is to improve the breadth and effectiveness of a prostate cancer immunotherapy. Inovio’s SynCon® DNA vaccine was generated by the creation of PSA and PSMA synthetic consensus immunogens based on human and macaque sequences, which enabled the amino acid sequences of the antigens to differ slightly from the native protein. In humans, this difference may aid in the evasion of self-tolerance while still mounting an anti-tumor immune response.
Stage of Development
Preclinical: In a monkey trial, vaccinations with INO-5150 generated strong and robust T cell immune responses similar to the level of T cell responses observed from a previously conducted monkey study of VGX-3100, Inovio's Phase II-stage therapeutic vaccine for cervical cancer and dysplasia. In a Phase I study, VGX-3100 generated best-in-class T cell responses, which were persistent through the complete study duration of nine months.
In a prior study in mice, INO-5150 immunization induced potent antibody and T cell responses, providing initial evidence that its concept for a therapeutic DNA vaccine comprising a broader collection of antigens, administered with Inovio's electroporation-based delivery technology, would improve the breadth and effectiveness of a prostate cancer immunotherapy.
Inovio is currently manufacturing clinical grade INO-5150 with the goal of launching its planned Phase I study in mid-2012.
Inovio previously collaborated with the UK's University of Southampton and Institute of Cancer Research in a study evaluating a DNA vaccine for prostate cancer (targeting only PSMA) delivered using Inovio's electroporation delivery technology. The published data from this phase I/II study of a DNA vaccine encoding for human PSMA generated proof-of-concept levels of both antibody and T-cell immune responses in the 30 patients vaccinated in this study.