Inovio Up Following HPV Treatment News

Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:INO) released preliminary data that shows its INO-3112 DNA-based immunotherapy created strong CD8+ T cell responses in three out of four patients with head and neck cancer that is associated with HPV types 16 and 18.

The company’s share price ended Thursday up 2.47 percent, at $9.96, on the news.

As quoted in the press release:

INO-3112, an active immunotherapy that targets HPV 16 and 18 and simultaneously expresses IL-12, is designed to activate in vivo (in the body) immune responses to antigens from high risk HPV types and eliminate precancerous and cancerous cells displaying these antigens. The data, which are T cell measurements from the first four treated patients of this phase I/IIa study, are being presented today at the World Vaccine Congress 2015 by Inovio’s COO, Dr. Niranjan Y. Sardesai.

These positive results represent the first study and first report of T cell immune responses generated in cancer patients after treatment with an Inovio DNA immunotherapy. The magnitude and characteristics of these interim immune response data mirror immune responses previously observed in human studies of VGX-3100 for HPV-associated cervical dysplasia; in a placebo-controlled phase II study, strong T cell immune responses were positively correlated with achievement of primary and secondary efficacy endpoints.

Dr. J. Joseph Kim, president and CEO of Inovio, commented:

This initial data set from Inovio’s first cancer study provides encouraging evidence that we are on an important path to better optimized immunotherapy products. Regardless of whether it is an infectious disease, a precancer, or a cancer: the immune system uses the same mechanism to eliminate infected or mutated cells. In immune-oncology, it’s all about the T cells. Here we show in cancer patients that we can generate antigen-specific CD8+ killer T cell responses, which are essential to an effective immunotherapy.

Click here to rad the full Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:INO) press release.