Inovio Ebola Vaccine Generates Robust Immune Responses in Humans

Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:INO) announced today that its Ebola vaccine, INO-4212, was safe, tolerable, and generated strong T cell and antibody responses in its fully enrolled phase I study of 75 healthy subjects. Detailed immunogenicity and safety data is being prepared for peer-reviewed publication. In previously reported preclinical testing in mice and non-human primates, the Ebola vaccine protected 100% of immunized animals from sickness and death following exposure to a lethal dose of Ebola virus.
According to the news:

This human study (CT.gov: NCT02464670) was conducted by an Inovio-led consortium, which was selected and awarded $45 million by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in 2015 to take a multi-faceted approach to prevent and treat Ebola infection.

This initial trial evaluated INO-4212 in five groups of healthy subjects. INO-4212 consists of two optimized SynCon^® DNA plasmids coding for the Ebola glycoprotein antigen from circulating Ebola strains from 1975 – 2014. These plasmids were tested separately and together in muscle and skin in five study arms, one including Inovio’s DNA-based IL-12 immune activator. Of 69 evaluated subjects, 64 (92.7%) seroconverted and mounted a strong antibody response to the Ebola glycoprotein antigen following the three dose immunization regimen; 48 subjects (69.6%) seroconverted after only two doses.

Dr. J. Joseph Kim, President and CEO commented:

These initial data from our Ebola DNA vaccine represent just a first step in this DARPA-funded program. We look forward to rapidly moving this DNA vaccine into larger human studies on the path to product licensure. We are also advancing our Ebola dMAb™ product and expect to clinically test that independently of the DNA vaccine approach.

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