Previous Pause Next
Home >> News Center >>
Inovio Expands DNA Vaccine Intellectual Property License with University of Pennsylvania PDF Print E-mail
User Rating :  / 0
Monday, 11 January 2010 10:01

Inovio Biomedical Corporation (NYSE Amex: INO), a leader in DNA vaccine design, development and delivery, announced today that it has expanded its existing license agreement with the University of Pennsylvania, adding exclusive worldwide licenses for technology and intellectual property for novel DNA vaccines against pandemic influenza, Chikungunya, and foot-and-mouth disease. The amendment also encompasses new chemokine and cytokine molecular adjuvant technologies. The technology was developed in the University of Pennsylvania laboratory of Professor David B. Weiner, a pioneer in the field of DNA vaccines, and chairman of Inovio’s scientific advisory board.

Dr. J. Joseph Kim, president and CEO, stated, “Our DNA vaccine technology offers the potential to prevent and/or treat a broad array of cancers and infectious diseases, and has achieved compelling preclinical and initial clinical results. This new intellectual property from an eminent DNA vaccine research laboratory broadens our opportunities to pursue important new infectious diseases.”

Under the terms of the original license agreement completed in 2007, the Company obtained exclusive worldwide rights to develop multiple DNA plasmids and constructs with the potential to treat and/or prevent HIV, HCV, HPV and influenza and included molecular adjuvants. These prior and most recent agreements and amendments provide for royalty payments, based on future sales, to the University of Pennsylvania.

About Inovio Biomedical Corporation

Inovio Biomedical is focused on the design, development, and delivery of a new generation of vaccines, called DNA vaccines, to prevent and treat cancers and infectious diseases. The company’s SynCon™ technology enables the design of “universal” vaccines capable of protecting against multiple – including newly emergent, unknown – strains of pathogens such as influenza. Inovio’s proprietary electroporation-based DNA vaccine delivery technology has been shown by initial human data to safely and significantly increase gene expression and immune responses. Inovio’s clinical programs include HPV/cervical cancer (therapeutic) and HIV vaccines. An IND has been filed for an avian influenza vaccine. Inovio is developing its universal and avian influenza vaccines in collaboration with scientists from the University of Pennsylvania, the National Microbiology Laboratory of the Public Health Agency of Canada, and the NIH’s Vaccine Research Center. Other partners and collaborators include Merck, Tripep, University of Southampton, National Cancer Institute, and HIV Vaccines Trial Network. More information is available at www.inovio.com.

This press release contains, in addition to historical information, forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on management’s current estimates and expectations and are subject to a number of uncertainties and risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. Inovio is providing this information as of the date of this press release, and expressly disclaims any duty to update information contained in this press release.

Forward-looking statements in this press release include, without limitation, express and implied statements relating to Inovio’s business, plans to develop electroporation-based drug and gene delivery technologies and DNA vaccines and pre-clinical and clinical studies. Actual events or results may differ from the expectations set forth herein as a result of a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors, including but not limited to: Inovio has a history of losses; all of Inovio’s potential human products are in research and development phases; no revenues have been generated from the sale of any such products, nor are any such revenues expected for at least the next several years; Inovio’s product candidates will require significant additional research and development efforts, including extensive preclinical and clinical testing; uncertainties inherent in clinical trials and product development programs, including but not limited to the fact that pre-clinical and clinical results may not be indicative of results achievable in other trials or for other indications, that results from one study may not necessarily be reflected or supported by the results of other similar studies, that results from an animal study may not be indicative of results achievable in human studies, that clinical testing is expensive and can take many years to complete, that the outcome of any clinical trial is uncertain and failure can occur at any time during the clinical trial process, and that Inovio’s electroporation technology and DNA vaccines may fail to show the desired safety and efficacy traits in clinical trials; all product candidates that Inovio advances to clinical testing will require regulatory approval prior to commercial use, and will require significant costs for commercialization; the availability of funding; the ability to manufacture vaccine candidates; the availability or potential availability of alternative therapies or treatments for the conditions targeted by Inovio or its collaborators, including alternatives that may be more efficacious or cost-effective than any therapy or treatment that Inovio and its collaborators hope to develop; whether Inovio’s proprietary rights are enforceable or defensible or infringe or allegedly infringe on rights of others or can withstand claims of invalidity; and the impact of government healthcare proposals. Readers are also referred to Inovio’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2008 and its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2009 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission which identify important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements.

 
FairExcellent 

Add comment  |   Add to my library  |  Forward this article

login to leave comment

Collaboration, Projects, & Consortia

TGen, Karmanos Lead $6M Melanoma Project

Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute and Pfizer Collaborate to Speed Drug Discovery

e2v aerospace and defense and Maxim Announce an Agreement to Extend the Product Life of Maxim Ceramic ICs

Syntaxin and Ipsen Ally to Develop Botulinum Toxin Therapeutics

BioAmber and LANXESS Partner for Renewable, Phthalate-free Plasticizers

Corgenix Partners with AXA Diagnostics on SkyLAB 752™ Automated Testing Platform

GeoVax and Vivalis Sign Deal for the Biomanufacture of MVA HIV Vaccine in EB66 Cells

EMD Serono and Fast Forward Commit $3 Million for Multiple Sclerosis

VisionGate Begins Collaborations to Evaluate 3-D Cell Analysis Test for Lung Cancer Screening

VaxyGen Manufacturing Services LLC Announces Exclusive License and Collaborative Agreement with Georgia State University Research Foundation to Commercialize Novel Biological Process Development Patent, Expertise & Know-How

>> More in: Collaboration, Projects and Consortia

Featured Experts

Featured Laboratories

Grant & Funding Opportunities

NHGRI Unveils New-Look Genome Sequencing Program; Plans $416M in Funding

NYU to Study Genetics of Obesity-Related Cancers

Researchers Get NHGRI Funding to Study Effects of Alzheimer's Risk Testing

Venture Firms Pump $18M into Fledgling Arteaus Therapeutics

Servier and miRagen Sign $352M Deal for Cardiovascular miRNA Therapeutics

Tetraphase Awarded Initial $6M by NIAID to Develop Antibiotic Against Biothreats

Dermira Announces a $42m Series A Financing to Fund Therapeutic Advances in Dermatology

Salk Institute for Biological Studies to Accelerate Brain Research With $4.5 Million National Institutes of Health (NIH) Grant

Arsanis Wins €1.2M for Research on Antibody Against Hospital-Acquired Infections

SAMHSA Awards Approximately $1.3 Million To Help Communities Offer Expanded HIV Testing, Counseling And Referral For Care

>> More in: Grant & Funding Opportunities

Hot Papers

New fluorescent dyes highlight neuronal activity

Study reveals enzyme function, could help find muscular dystrophy therapies

Breakthrough in Treatment to Prevent Blindness

Vision Scientists Demonstrate Innovative Learning Method

Scripps research scientists develop brand new class of small molecules through innovative chemistry

Scripps research team achieves critical step to opening elusive class of compounds to drug discovery

Nobel Laureate Bruce Beutler on molecular sensors as a trigger for autoimmune disease

Talk to the Virtual Hands: Body Language of Both Speaker and Listener Affects Success in Virtual Reality Communication Game

Sniffing out the Brain's Predictive Power: Human Brain 'Smells' What It Expects Rather Than What It Sniffs

Children Find Human-Made Objects More Likely to Be Owned Than Natural Objects

>> More in: Top 5 papers (Hot Papers)

Appointments

Sanofi (France) Taps David Meeker as New CEO of Genzyme Corporation

Drug Information Association Appoints Kaushik Desai as DIA India Director

Sentrx Announces Resignation of Charles T. Saldarini As CEO

EKR Therapeutics Announces Senior Management Change

Amgen Appoints Robert A. Bradway to the Company's Board of Directors

Anavex Life Sciences Corp. Appoints Dr. George Tidmarsh as Executive Director

Isis Biopolymer Appoints New President and CEO

RedHill Biopharma Appoints Key Opinion Leader Professor David Y. Graham from Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, as Lead Investigator for the US Pivotal Clinical Trial with RedHill's Crohn’s Drug – RHB-104

Apceth is Extending its Top Management: Prof. Ralf Huss Moves from Roche (RHHBY) to the Biotechnology Company apceth

BioIndustry Association Board Appointments

>> More in: Appointments

Recognitions

Journal names discovery that HIV treatment can prevent spread 'breakthrough of the year'

Abbott Laboratories's Absorb(TM) Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffold Honored with Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Award

Chris Henney Receives 2011 Hall of Fame Award at Annual Biotech CEO Meeting at Laguna Beach

Scripps Florida Scientist Awarded $2.2 Million Grant To Study Hepatitis C

SAMHSA Awards Up To $25 Million To Expand Use Of Health Information Technology

Ablitech, Inc. Awarded $2 Million

The Michael J. Fox Foundation Awards AFFiRiS AG $1.5 Million for the Clinical Development of the First Parkinson's Disease Vaccine

SAMHSA Awards Grant To UCLA For Substance Abuse Prevention In Iraq

KGI Professor Awarded Patent For Stem-Cell Therapy Aiding Heart-attack Patients

Nobel Prize for chemistry 2011 goes to Israeli scientist Daniel Shechtman

>> More in: Recognitions