Inovio Reports Results From Preclinical Study Of DMAb Antibody & Vaccine

(RTTNews) - Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (INO) announced its dMAb antibody and DNA vaccine targeting the chikungunya virus provided 100% protection against a lethal virus challenge in mice. Inovio Pharma said, while conventional vaccine and marketed monoclonal antibody technologies have shown limited ability to provide an effective solution to chikungunya virus to date, Inovio's DNA vaccine and dMAb products show potential, separately and in combination, to offer immediate and long term protection to large populations from chikungunya virus infection.

Dr. Joseph Kim, Inovio's CEO, said, "This study is significant for two reasons. First, this is our third published study (two previous in HIV and dengue) demonstrating the protective efficacy of our dMAb products. Second, this study demonstrates that Inovio's dMAb products and DNA vaccines could be a powerful combination to provide robust immediate and long term protection not only for CHIKV but also other infectious diseases. Our MERS and Ebola vaccines are in phase I clinical studies and we will advance our Zika vaccine to phase I before year end. We also aim to test further combinations."