Country for PR: United States
Contributor: PR Newswire New York
Wednesday, November 10 2021 - 00:00
AsiaNet
INOVIO Receives U.S. FDA Authorization to Proceed with INNOVATE Phase 3 Segment for its COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate, INO-4800, in the U.S.
PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa., Nov. 9, 2021 /PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ --

- FDA Lifts Partial Clinical Hold on INNOVATE Phase 3 Segment 

INOVIO (NASDAQ: INO), a biotechnology company focused on bringing to market 
precisely designed DNA medicines to help protect people from infectious 
diseases and treat cancer and HPV-associated diseases, today announced that the 
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) provided authorization to proceed for 
INOVIO's INNOVATE Phase 3 Segment for its COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate, INO-4800, 
in the U.S. The FDA has lifted the partial clinical hold following the FDA's 
review of additional non-clinical, clinical, and device information provided by 
INOVIO.

Dr. J. Joseph Kim, INOVIO's President and CEO, said, "I want to recognize and 
express my appreciation to my INOVIO colleagues for their hard work throughout 
this process. We are pleased to have the opportunity for U.S. clinical trial 
participants to potentially contribute to the enrollment in our INNOVATE Phase 
3 segment. Today's U.S. announcement builds on our intensive global efforts in 
India, Brazil, Philippines, Mexico, Colombia, and Thailand where we have 
received authorizations to date."

INOVIO is partnering with Advaccine Biopharmaceuticals Suzhou Co., Ltd. to 
conduct the INNOVATE Phase 3 segment in multiple countries in the Americas, 
Asia, and Africa. The global Phase 3 segment of INNOVATE will evaluate the 
efficacy of INO-4800 in a two-dose regimen (2.0 mg per dose), administered one 
month apart, in a 2-to-1 randomization in men and non-pregnant women 18 years 
of age and older. The primary endpoint of this case-driven Phase 3 trial is 
virologically confirmed symptomatic COVID-19.

About INO-4800

INO-4800, INOVIO's DNA vaccine candidate against SARS-CoV-2, is composed of a 
precisely designed DNA plasmid that is injected intradermally followed by 
electroporation using a proprietary smart device, which delivers the DNA 
plasmid directly into cells in the body and is intended to produce a 
well-tolerated immune response. As one of the only nucleic-acid based vaccines 
that is stable at room temperature for more than a year, at 37 degrees C for 
more than a month, has a five-year projected shelf life at normal refrigeration 
temperatures and does not need to be frozen during transport or storage, 
INO-4800 is anticipated to be well-positioned for a primary series immunization 
as well as a booster.

About INOVIO

INOVIO is a biotechnology company focused on rapidly bringing to market 
precisely designed DNA medicines to treat and protect people from infectious 
diseases, cancer, and diseases associated with HPV. INOVIO is the first company 
to have clinically demonstrated that a DNA vaccine candidate can be delivered 
directly into cells in the body via a proprietary smart device to produce a 
robust and tolerable immune response. Specifically, INOVIO's lead therapeutic 
candidate VGX-3100 met primary and secondary endpoints for all evaluable 
subjects in REVEAL 1, the first of two Phase 3 trials for precancerous cervical 
dysplasia, demonstrating ability to destroy and clear both high-grade cervical 
lesions and the underlying high-risk HPV-16/18. INOVIO is also evaluating 
INO-4800, a vaccine candidate against COVID-19, in a Phase 2/3 clinical trial; 
the Phase 3 segment of which has received regulatory authorizations to proceed 
in Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, Philippines, India, Thailand, and the United 
States. INOVIO's partners, Advaccine Biopharmaceuticals and International 
Vaccine Institute, are also evaluating INO-4800 in ongoing clinical trials in 
China and South Korea, respectively. 

Partners and collaborators include Advaccine, ApolloBio Corporation, 
AstraZeneca, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Coalition for Epidemic 
Preparedness Innovations, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency/Joint 
Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear 
Defense/Department of Defense, HIV Vaccines Trial Network, International 
Vaccine Institute, Kaneka Eurogentec, Medical CBRN Defense Consortium, National 
Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Allergy 
and Infectious Diseases, Ology Bioservices, the Parker Institute for Cancer 
Immunotherapy, Plumbline Life Sciences, Regeneron, Richter-Helm BioLogics, 
Thermo Fisher Scientific, University of Pennsylvania, Walter Reed Army 
Institute of Research, and The Wistar Institute. For more information, visit 
www.inovio.com.

CONTACTS:

Media: Jeff Richardson, 267-440-4211, jrichardson@inovio.com
Investors: Ben Matone, 484-362-0076, ben.matone@inovio.com 

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements relating to our 
business, including our plans to develop and commercialize DNA medicines, our 
expectations regarding our research and development programs, including the 
planned initiation and conduct of pre-clinical studies and clinical trials and 
the availability and timing of data from those studies and trials, our ability 
to successfully manufacture and produce large quantities of our product 
candidates if they receive regulatory approval and planned collaborations with 
third parties. Actual events or results may differ from the expectations set 
forth herein as a result of a number of factors, including uncertainties 
inherent in pre-clinical studies, clinical trials, product development programs 
and commercialization activities and outcomes, our ability to secure sufficient 
manufacturing capacity to mass produce our product candidates, the availability 
of funding to support continuing research and studies in an effort to prove 
safety and efficacy of electroporation technology as a delivery mechanism or 
develop viable DNA medicines, our ability to support our pipeline of DNA 
medicine products, the ability of our collaborators to attain development and 
commercial milestones for products we license and product sales that will 
enable us to receive future payments and royalties, the adequacy of our capital 
resources, the availability or potential availability of alternative therapies 
or treatments for the conditions targeted by us or collaborators, including 
alternatives that may be more efficacious or cost effective than any therapy or 
treatment that we and our collaborators hope to develop, issues involving 
product liability, issues involving patents and whether they or licenses to 
them will provide us with meaningful protection from others using the covered 
technologies, whether such proprietary rights are enforceable or defensible or 
infringe or allegedly infringe on rights of others or can withstand claims of 
invalidity and whether we can finance or devote other significant resources 
that may be necessary to prosecute, protect or defend them, the level of 
corporate expenditures, assessments of our technology by potential corporate or 
other partners or collaborators, capital market conditions, the impact of 
government healthcare proposals and other factors set forth in our Annual 
Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020 , our Quarterly Report 
on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2021 and other filings we make from 
time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. There can be no 
assurance that any product candidate in our pipeline will be successfully 
developed, manufactured, or commercialized, that results of clinical trials 
will be supportive of regulatory approvals required to market products, or that 
any of the forward-looking information provided herein will be proven accurate. 
Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this release, and we 
undertake no obligation to update or revise these statements, except as may be 
required by law.

SOURCE  INOVIO Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
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