DNA Vaccine Potential

Inovio has created a novel platform for developing and delivering “universal” DNA-based vaccines against diseases such as influenza, HIV, malaria, dengue, and cervical cancer. Inovio’s universal vaccines have shown preclinical results indicating their potential to protect against new, unknown strains of an infectious disease such as the currently circulating H1N1 “swine flu.”

Dr. J. Joseph Kim, president and CEO of Inovio Biomedical Corporation, presented DNA vaccine potential at the World Knowledge Forum in Seoul, South Korea. In Dr. Kim’s presentation “Developing universal SynCon™ vaccines to improve human lives” he introduced Inovio’s proprietary DNA vaccine development platform, an approach to producing DNA-based vaccines with great potential to prevent and treat chronic infectious diseases and cancer.

Dr. Kim highlighted recent results from a combination of its synthetic consensus (SynConTM) H1N1 influenza vaccine candidates, which achieved protective antibody responses against the novel pandemic influenza A/H1N1 (2009) in 100% of tested ferrets. The ferret model is widely considered to be the most representative of human influenza; achieving in ferrets a level of antibody titers correlated with protection in humans is a critical milestone in influenza vaccine development. In this experiment, a single vaccination showed induction of positive immune responses in 78% (7 of 9) of ferrets, with a mean HI titer of 1:42 (a titer is a measure of antibody levels against a virus; in the case of influenza, an HI titer exceeding 1:40 in animals, including humans, is considered to be a protective level). After two booster shots, 100% of immunized ferrets had HI titers greater than 1:40, with the mean titer rising to 1:390, representing a very strong increase in antibodies.

Inovio has now completed cGMP clinical product manufacturing of its H1N1 SynCon™ vaccine candidate, an important step in advancing the candidate toward clinical testing. As part of the company’s strategy for its universal influenza vaccine, the H1N1 vaccine would be combined with Inovio’s H5N1 vaccine candidate, for which an IND has already been submitted to the FDA. On the path toward its universal influenza vaccine concept, Inovio will also mix in constructs for H2N2 and H3N2 influenza sub-types; together these four sub-types were responsible for most of the seasonal and pandemic influenza outbreaks of the last 100 years.

Dr. Kim also described the company’s recently reported results for its therapeutic HPV/cervical cancer DNA vaccine. Inovio reported significant T-cell responses in 50% (3 of 6) and strong antibody responses in 83% (5 of 6) subjects treated with just the first, low-dose group in its phase I clinical study. Generating a significant T-cell immune response is considered imperative to treating cancers and infectious diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C virus. The T-cell immune responses generated in this study were among the strongest generated by a DNA vaccine in humans.