Inovio Biomedical Corporation (NYSE Amex:INO), a leader in DNA vaccine design, development and delivery, announced today that a combination of its synthetic consensus H1N1, H2N2, H3N2, and H5N1 influenza vaccine candidates achieved protective antibody responses against several different influenza sub-types and strains in ferrets. In addition, ferrets immunized with Inovio’s SynConTM universal flu vaccine combinations were 100% protected against death and sickness in a challenge with the A/H1N1 (2009) swine-origin influenza. Dr. Niranjan Y. Sardesai, Inovio’s SVP, Research and Development, presented this data at the Influenza Congress USA 2009 in Washington, DC, in a presentation titled, “Development of Universal SynCon™ DNA Vaccines for Pandemic and Seasonal Influenza.”
Inovio previously reported that its consensus H5N1 and H1N1 vaccine candidates induced protective immune responses in ferrets and other animal models against multiple strains of H5N1 (clade 1 and 2) and H1N1 viruses with pandemic potential. The studies reported here mark one of the first demonstrations of a vaccine formulation proving effective against a broad panel of influenza viruses representing seasonal and pandemic influenza strains.
Dr. J. Joseph Kim, Inovio’s President and CEO, said, “Inovio is proud to be one of the first organizations to demonstrate a vaccine capable of providing protection against a broad set of unmatched influenza sub-types and strains, both seasonal and pandemic. If we can achieve similar outcomes in humans, this universal vaccine concept would have the potential to shift the current reactive paradigm of influenza vaccine design, manufacturing, and inoculation – a paradigm unrealistically challenged every year to correctly match key emerging strains, manufacture the vaccine, and inoculate people in an eight to 12 month cycle – to one that preemptively provides broader protection without having to match the minor and major changes in influenza that create new seasonal and pandemic strains. Such a shift would provide tremendous health and economic benefits worldwide.”
In these studies the researchers immunized ferrets with either a vaccine formulation targeting only H1N1 viruses (seasonal and pandemic) or a universal vaccine formulation targeting H1N1, H2N2, H3N2, and H5N1 viruses. Ferrets are considered to be the most relevant animal model for influenza vaccine development. The first test was a measurement of hemagglutination inhibition (HI) responses: blood taken from vaccinated animals was tested against different influenza strains for the level of anti-HA (e.g. H1, H2, etc.) protective antibodies in the blood serum. A measured “antibody titer” of 1:20 is generally regarded as a positive vaccine response; 1:40 is generally associated with protection against influenza in humans.