Inovio Develops Vaccine for Deadly Flu Virus

Inovio Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:INO) announced on Monday (September 17 that its SynCon approach has generated protective antibody responses against deadly flu viruses.

The approach, which has already been proven in a preclinical study with mice, uses a collection of DNA antigens and was tested on the most deadly strains of the H3N2 flu viruses over the past 50 years.

The preclinical work for this study was sponsored by a grant from the US National Institutes of Health, and was published in the scientific journal Human Gene Therapy.

“This study is a step towards conquering the diversity of the H3N2 flu viruses that has vexed researchers for years. In this preclinical study, Inovio demonstrated that its SynCon® method of antigen design is capable of providing protection against multiple H3N2 strains,” said Dr. Laurent Humeau, Inovio’s senior vice president of research and development.

In this preclinical study, vaccinated mice were infected with strong doses of two of these virus strains, which were common decades ago. All mice survived these doses,which hints towards a strong potential for the possibility towards this vaccine in humans.

Inovio’s vaccine also proved to promote some T cell responses — CD4 and CD8 — which may help patients to prevent other diseases amongst the elderly.

The company also reported a successful response to its synthetic approach to DNA antigens for a vaccine for all major deadly strains of the H1 influenza from the mid 1910’s. The approach was used in animals including mice, guinea pigs and non-human primates.

The company is working towards developing this vaccine because the current flu vaccination didn’t have a high success rate during the previous flu season. For some populations, the treatment only had 13 percent effectiveness, resulting in pneumonia and flu-related deaths that could have been avoided.

A problem with the current vaccine is the H3N2 virus has different strains. As a result, the vaccine had a low chance of matching these strains.

According to data from the Influenza Hospitalization Surveillance Network, hospitalization rates were the highest ever recorded during the previous flu season and the H3N2 the most prominent flu virus among patients, as reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Over half of the reported influenza-associated hospitalized patients were 65 years and over. Patients in this age group are more at risk for major side effects due to declining immune responses.

This pharmaceutical company is working on multiple late-stage programs for a multitude of indications, such as hepatitis B, HIV, Zika and oncology treatments. In addition to its vaccine formula, Inovio has a proprietary technology platform which enhances next-generation antigen sequencing and DNA delivery to activate strong immune responses to targeted diseases, such as these.

Investor takeaway

Since Inovio news was reported the company’s share price dropped 2.77 percent to US$4.89 as of 10:45 a.m. EST Tuesday (September 18). Also Tuesday, H.C. Wainwright analyst Ram Selvaraju released a note to investors on the company by reiterating his “Buy” position with a US$13 price target.

The company hasn’t released any news of upcoming milestones for this trial and when it may enter the clinic, however keen investors can check on the company’s site for further news.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Gabrielle Lakusta, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.