Phase I clinical study of PENNVAX-B preventive DNA vaccine using electroporation technology

Inovio Biomedical Corporation (NYSE Amex: INO), a leader in DNA vaccine design, development and delivery, and the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) announced today the initiation of a phase I clinical study of Inovio’s PENNVAX™-B preventive DNA vaccine delivered using its proprietary electroporation technology. The multi-center study will be conducted at several HVTN clinical sites under a protocol designated HVTN-080.

The study will enroll healthy volunteers to assess the safety of and immune responses to this DNA-based vaccine delivered via in vivo electroporation. Inovio previously reported data from non-human primates demonstrating up to a 100-fold enhancement in immune responses resulting from the vaccine when delivered via in vivo electroporation compared to syringe injection without electroporation. PENNVAX™-B is currently in a clinical study, being conducted under the HVTN-070 protocol by the same group of collaborators, to test safety and immunogenicity of the vaccine delivered via intramuscular syringe injection without electroporation. The HVTN-080 follow-on study is sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), an NIH agency.

Dr. J. Joseph Kim, Inovio’s president and CEO, said, “We are pleased to collaborate with the NIH and HVTN to test the SynCon™ PENNVAX-B HIV vaccine delivered via electroporation. With our recently announced positive interim immunogenicity data from our clinical trial for our human papillomavirus/cervical cancer DNA vaccine using a similar technology approach, we are optimistic that electroporation delivery of PENNVAX™-B vaccine will demonstrate similar levels of safety and immunogenicity in this trial.”

http://www.inovio.com/