Inovio Partners With GeneOne Life For MERS Immunotherapy Clinical Development

(RTTNews) - Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc. (INO) said Wednesday that it will advance its DNA vaccine for MERS or Middle East Respiratory Syndrome into a phase I clinical trial in healthy volunteers in a collaboration with GeneOne Life Science Inc., an international DNA vaccine developer and manufacturer in which Inovio holds an equity interest.

MERS is a respiratory disease caused by a coronavirus, which is related to the severe acute respiratory syndrome or SARS virus. Currently, MERS carries a 40% death rate; there is no vaccine or effective treatment for this virus.

Inovio and GeneOne will conduct a phase I trial to evaluate the safety, tolerability and immunogenicity of Inovio's DNA-based MERS vaccine. The companies are currently conducting pre-IND activities and plan to start the clinical study before year end. GeneOne will conduct and fund the clinical study in return for milestone-based co-ownership of the immunotherapy. Upon successful completion of the study, the companies plan to jointly seek additional third party support and resources to further develop and commercialize this product.

In preclinical tests, INO-4500 showed robust and durable immune responses. Animals vaccinated with INO-4500 generated strong neutralizing antibodies and robust CD8+ T cells to MERS antigens. These findings are vital given the importance of neutralizing antibodies in preventing infection and the role T cells play in clearing infection by killing cells that harbor the virus.