Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc (INO)

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4:10AM Inovio Pharma moves closer to 'universal' influenza vaccine by demonstrating protective immune responses against multiple H3N2 and Type B strains in animal studies (INO) 0.57 : Co announces that its synthetic vaccines for influenza Type A H3N2 and Type B achieved protective antibody responses in immunized animals against multiple unmatched strains. Inovio previously reported that its H5N1 synthetic vaccine achieved hemagglutination inhibition titers against six unmatched strains of this influenza subtype in a Phase I human study. The animals immunized with the SynCon H3N2 vaccine developed HI titers exceeding the 1:40 level. Additional animal testing of the remaining few H3N2 clades will continue in 2012 and will include a new strain, H3N2v, which was selected this month by the CDC as a pandemic vaccine target. Similarly, in the study of Inovio's SynCon Type B vaccine, investigators tested blood samples from immunized mice for immune responses against multiple, unmatched strains of Type B influenza. All the animals immunized with the SynCon? Type B vaccine developed HI titers exceeding the 1:40 level against all of the strains of Type B tested, including those circulating and consequently a part of the vaccine formulation in 2001-02, 2008-09, and 2011-12. Type B influenza mutates more slowly than Type A, but enough to preclude lasting immunity.