Preclinical Data Validates Capability of Inovio SynConTM
DNA Vaccines to Provide Universal Protection Against Unmatched Flu Virus
Strains
Inovio Biomedical Corporation (NYSE Amex:INO), a leader in DNA vaccine
design, development and delivery, announced today that the company's
SynCon™ H1N1 influenza DNA vaccines achieved protective antibody
responses against H1N1 swine influenza virus (A/Swine/Iowa/35233/1999)
in 100% of pigs immunized with a two-dose vaccine regimen.
Dr. Niranjan Sardesai, Senior VP, Research & Development, presented the
data at the Annual Conference of DNA Vaccines in Asia 2009
held in Beijing, China, July 9-10, 2009, in a presentation entitled,
“Pandemic and Seasonal Influenza DNA Vaccines Delivered Via
Electroporation.”
In this study, scientists immunized pigs with consensus H1N1 influenza
DNA vaccine candidates on day 0, day 14, and day 28. Sera collected on
day 28 and day 42, after two or three doses of vaccine, respectively,
showed hemagglutination inhibition (HI) titers above the protection
threshold in 100% of the vaccinated animals against a swine H1N1 virus
previously isolated from pigs. On-going additional animal studies are
testing the ability of Inovio’s SynCon™ human H1N1 and swine H1N1 based
vaccines to cross-protect from currently circulating human and swine
H1N1 viruses as well as the new influenza A/H1N1 of swine origin.
In a similar collaborative study with scientists from the National
Microbiology Laboratory of the Public Health Agency of Canada and the
University of Pennsylvania, Inovio previously demonstrated that mice
immunized with Inovio’s SynCon™ H1N1 DNA vaccine provided 100%
protection in a lethal challenge study against an unmatched H1N1 virus
that caused the 1918 Spanish flu, which killed over 40 million people
worldwide.
Dr. J. Joseph Kim, Inovio’s CEO, said, “Our innovative SynCon™
technology has the potential to protect people from influenza strains
not exactly like the ones that make up the existing vaccines. This is a
clear advantage for our universal flu program over conventional
influenza vaccines. We are pleased to report our H1N1 preclinical
results using pigs, a more natural model for the current influenza
pandemic. We look forward to advancing our SynCon™ universal flu vaccine
program toward clinical investigation.”
Inovio’s novel SynCon™ technology enables the company to design
DNA-based vaccines with the potential to protect against unmatched
sub-types and strains of pathogens.
