Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc (INO)

[Inoviorulez]

A good article out today Jan 28th About Inovio!

Pennsylvania-based biotech Inovio is taking a different approach to developing a universal vaccine. Instead of inoculating people with an inactivated virus fragment or protein, the company is developing a DNA-based vaccine. To make it protective against multiple flu strains, the company combines DNA sequences from existing virus strains into a single dose. The DNA pieces are delivered by a shot combined with the company’s proprietary delivery system. A handheld device that looks like a pen delivers a small electric field which temporarily opens up cell membranes to allow the DNA vaccine to enter cells, says Inovio CEO Joseph Kim. Once inside cells, the DNA is read by the cell’s own machinery to build viral proteins which will activate the body’ immune system. The result is that the body creates antibodies against a diversity of flu strains.

The company is currently testing the vaccine in people 65 and older as a combination treatment along with existing flu vaccines. The elderly are the most at risk when it comes to flu and are the least protected by current immunizations. Every year, some 35,000 people die because of the flu and “90 percent of the deaths are in people who are 65 and older,” says Kim. “But the seasonal flu vaccine only protects about 10 to 20 percent of the elderly.”

Inovio’s clinical trial has shown that combining the seasonal flu vaccine with the company’s experimental universal vaccine has doubled the number of elderly protected from the flu.

“It is hard to predict the future, but if we can have a universal vaccine that can protect against all known dominant strains, the likelihood of protecting against future unknown is much higher,” says Kim. “If we are correct, we can change the flu paradigm into one more like what we do with other vaccinations.”

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/510316/why-the-flu-is-so-relentless-and-how-technology-might-help/