Inovio Pharmaceuticals announced that the medical arm of the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) will fund the further development of Inovio's new commercial intradermal delivery device.
Image: Inovio has received £6.6m to support further development of commercial skin delivery device. Photo: courtesy of Areeya / FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
DTRA’s Medical CBRN Defense Consortium will provide $8.14m (£6.6m) to support Inovio in developing a small, portable, battery-powered intradermal device branded as CELLECTRA 3PSP to be used in the administration of Inovio’s vaccines and therapies which include DTRA developed products.
In addition to the development of CELLECTRA 3PSP, the new award will fund the investigation of DNA vaccines developed by the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) using the new device.
Dr. Kate Broderick, Inovio’s Senior Vice President of R&D and the Principal Investigator of the program, said, “We are honored that the U.S. Government considered highly of Inovio’s track record of innovation and is providing this funding to support the further development of our commercial intradermal vaccine delivery device.
Our CELLECTRA 3PSP is a small, portable user-friendly device which will allow broader access to Inovio’s vaccines and immunotherapies, whether the vaccine is administered to our troops ready to be deployed around the world, at a local pharmacy or in challenging settings such as rural Africa.”
In recent Inovio sponsored clinical studies, intradermal delivery of Inovio’s HIV, Ebola, and Zika vaccines resulted in consistently high and robust levels of immune responses. In an HIV vaccine study using intradermal delivery of PENNVAX® vaccine, Inovio demonstrated nearly 100% of participants displayed anti-HIV antibody and CD4+ T cell responses.
The project was sponsored by the U.S. Government through Other Transaction Agreement (OTA) number W15QKN-16-9-1002 between the Medical CBRN Defense Consortium (MCDC), and the Government.
The MCDC that is funding Inovio’s device development, was formed in response to the U.S. government’s interest in leveraging cutting edge R&D from commercial sources. This gives MCDC an agile and flexible way to develop medical countermeasures using new and innovative technology. Specifically, this program supports the U.S. Department of Defense’s future medical pharmaceutical and diagnostic requirements as related to enhancing the mission effectiveness of military personnel.
Inovio is an innovative biotechnology company focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of its synthetic nucleic technology targeted against cancers and infectious diseases. Inovio’s proprietary technology platform applies antigen sequencing and delivery to activate potent immune responses to targeted diseases.
The technology functions exclusively in vivo, and has been demonstrated to consistently activate robust and fully functional T cell and antibody responses against targeted cancers and pathogens. Inovio’s most advanced clinical program, VGX-3100, is in Phase 3 for the treatment of HPV-related cervical pre-cancer.
Source: Company Press Release