Inovio Pharm gets $5M from Gates Foundation to further COVID-19 vaccine project – The San Diego Union-Tribune

Inovio Pharmaceuticals said Thursday that it has received a $5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to scale up testing and production of a portable device to deliver a DNA-based COVID-19 vaccine that the company is developing.

Inovios San Diego Device Manufacturing facility will build the initial number of the proprietary vaccine delivery devices as well as demonstrate how to manufacture them in larger numbers.

After that, production could be transferred to additional contract manufacturers if increased capacity is necessary, the company said.

Inovio is fast tracking the development of a COVID-19 vaccine, with Phase 1 human trials involving up to 50 healthy people set to begin in April in the U.S.

Work on the vaccine, which was created in Inovios San Diego lab, is being funded through a $9 million grant from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, or CEPI.

A public/private partnership, CEPI has invested more than $27 million to date in several efforts to develop a COVID-19 vaccine from a range of organizations.

Inovio is based near Philadelphia but operates a core research lab in San Diego. It is one of roughly 10 companies working on a COVID-19 vaccine, all of which are in fairly early stages of testing.

To deliver its DNA-based vaccine, Inovio aims to use a hand-held device that runs on AA batteries. The system was developed initially with a $8.1 million grant from the medical arm of the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency. It has been used to deliver 6,000 doses of other treatments that Inovio is working on.

The company has no approved drugs to date, though some are in clinical trials. It is preparing for a Phase 2 trial for a vaccine for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS, which also is a strain of corona-virus.

Inovios shares have been whipsawed this week after a Twitter post from Citron Research on Sunday that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission should investigate the companys claims that it designed its initial COVID-19 vaccine in three hours after the genetic sequence of the virus became publicly available.

This has been a serial stock promotion for years, according to the Citron Tweet. This will trade back to $2. Investors have been warned.

Inovios shares dropped 32 percent on Monday. A handful of shareholder class action law firms announced that they were conducting investigations of the company.

Inovio responded on Twitter Monday, posting a note to shareholders that said Citron demonstrated a lack of understanding of the science behind DNA medicines.

Based on extensive prior work creating DNA vaccines using our proprietary DNA medicines platform, we are confident we have a viable approach to address the COVID-19 outbreak, the company said.

Inovios shares ended trading Thursday up 13 percent at $9.50 on the Nasdaq exchange but remained below the March 6 high of $14.09.

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Inovio Pharm gets $5M from Gates Foundation to further COVID-19 vaccine project - The San Diego Union-Tribune