Inovio Jumps 70%, Boosting Vaccine
Inovio Pharmaceuticals speeds up developments for SARS-CoV-2, the corona virus that causes COVID-19. Its shares closed to 70% on Tuesday with news circulating clinical trials could start this summer.
Their shares rallied after saying human trials of the corona virus vaccine will start this April. Gilead, Moderna, AIM Immuno Tech, and Vir Biotechnology shares have moved lower.
It’s pretty clear why its stock jumped due to its accelerated COVID-19 vaccine timeline. It also makes sense why shares of Moderna and Novavax would drop in the stock market. Traders are treating the INO stock like a true star in Stock Trading.
How the Vaccine Came To Be
Inovio Chief Executive Dr. J. Joseph Kim disclosed that the company has come up with INO-4800 on January 10. He told the US Coronavirus Task Force meeting at the White House on Monday INO-4800 was designed three hours after gaining access to the DNA sequence of the novel coronavirus.
Its platform uses DNA to express a protein that the immune system recognizes as foreign and develops antibodies to it.
The protein is taken from the virus in patient’s cells and the antibodies can provide immunity if the patient is infected.
The Vaccine in Response to the Growing Threat of COVID-19
The virus has spread to 91,000 people and caused more than 3,100 deaths.
Daily coverage of COVID-19 shows 92,314 cases, 3,131 deaths, at least 107 sickened in the US.
With the increasing number of infected patients, the biotech is finalizing their clinical trial design. They have started pre-clinical testing which will continue until clinical testing starts next month. Inovio looks into manufacturing 3000 doses of vaccine for clinical trials which will start with 30 healthy US volunteers. They plan to make more for additional clinical trials and emergency use.
The plan to test the vaccine will expand to healthy volunteers in China and South Korea where the outbreak is impacting most people. By fall, data and reports from the studies should already be available.
The company is making progress in developing the vaccine. They hope to have 1 million doses of INO-4800 by end of 2020 using their existing resources.
Maxim analyst Jason McCarthy, Ph.D., says INO-4800 is the best vaccine option for the new illness. He said the speed with which it developed this vaccine demonstrates the versatility and speed with which they can respond to an emergency situation.
Inovio is consistently the recipient of non-dilutive grant funding for its vaccines, he wrote to a note to clients. It has received up to $56 million in CEPI grants for MERS and Zika. Last month was awarded up to $9 million for a COVID-19 vaccine.
