Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc (INO)

[Ubertino]

Inovio Partners with National Cancer Institute and Mayo Clinic to Initiate Hepatitis C Immunotherapy Clinical Trial

DNA-based immunotherapy will be tested for safety and immune responses in quest to eliminate HCV infection

PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa. – April 27, 2016 – Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: INO) announced today its immunotherapy for hepatitis C (INO-8000) will be evaluated in a phase I trial in chronically infected patients who are not receiving other hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatments. The study will enroll patients who are in the early stages of chronic HCV infection to determine the therapy’s ability to decrease and potentially eliminate HCV viral load, measure HCV specific immune responses and durability of these immune responses, and evaluate safety and tolerability. In this dose-escalation study INO-8000 will be combined with increasing doses of DNA-based IL-12 (INO-9012), an immune activator, which in previous studies has been shown to increase the therapeutic immune response to DNA immunotherapies.

The study is funded by the National Cancer Institute’s Division of Cancer Prevention and will be conducted at the Mayo Clinic and other U.S. sites.