Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc (INO)

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Wasatch Advisors has to say about Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in their Investor Letter:

“Another large detractor was Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (INO), even though we had trimmed our position size when the stock price was higher. A biotechnology company, Inovio is developing a Covid-19 vaccine candidate, INO4800. Following an upswell of optimism from March through June, the company’s stock price headed lower during the third quarter amid worries that Inovio may be falling behind its competitors in the race to develop a vaccine for the disease. Concerns grew in late September after the company disclosed in a press release that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had placed a partial hold on a combined Phase 2/3 clinical trial of INO-4800 that Inovio had planned to initiate by the end of the month. According to the company, the FDA had additional questions, including about the vaccine-delivery device to be used in the study.

On the positive side, Inovio stated that the FDA’s partial hold didn’t result from any adverse events in its ongoing Phase 1 trial. Nor does the hold affect the advancement of the company’s other pipeline assets. Should INO-4800 eventually gain approval, we think its advantages—especially with respect to safety, storage and administration—would position it as a potentially valuable weapon in the vaccine arsenal that will be needed to quell the pandemic. Inovio’s DNA medicines currently in development for various cancers and pre-cancers also offer meaningful upside potential in our analysis."