Why You Should Be Investing In DNA Vaccination Technology And Inovio Pharmaceuticals
May 16 2013, 11:38 about: INO (Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc)
Disclosure: I am long INO.
Important Historical and Sociological perspective on current and future vaccination technology
Historically vaccines are thought of as one of the greatest achievements of modern medicine, as is shown by the eradication of Smallpox, near eradication of Polio, and the controlling of Hepatitis A/B, typhus, and rotavirus. However, certain major diseases still remain, such as HIV, Hepatitis C, and Malaria, diseases that if a vaccination were to be developed, would be monumental.
In a sociological perspective the human race has been proceeding into a new era following the successful deciphering of the human genome, an era centered on major biotechnological advances that will greatly impact our lives.
How do these perspective tie together?
Traditional vaccine are created by use of a live or weakened variation of the disease is introduced into a person and creates an immunity to the pathogen should the person be introduced to it in the future. While effective, these weakened vaccines carry a risk that the introduced pathogen can revert to its dangerous form and cause the disease in the vaccine recipient. A second form of traditional vaccination attempts to introduce a dead variation of the pathogen into the recipient to build an immunity, however they are ineffective at generating specific immune responses to many diseases.
With the recent decoding of the human genome we now understand and have the capability to advance medicine through the use of gene therapy, which has most recently been applied through the creation of a new vaccination method known as DNA vaccination.
In DNA vaccination a section of DNA that has been genetically engineered to produce an immunity to a disease is injected into the cells of the body, where the hosts body reads this DNA and uses it as a blueprint to create an immunity. This has been proven to be an incredibly safe method of vaccination as there is no weakened form of the virus being introduced to the vaccine recipient that is able to potentially revert to its dangerous form. It is also remarkably more effective as it can target multiple strains of a disease (such as influenza) instead of being developed for each concurrent strain as it mutates. While still under development for use in humans, DNA vaccines have most recently been approved for use in animals, specifically the treatment of infectious hematopoetic necrosic vaccine for salmon [Novartis (NVS)] and for West Nile Virus in Horses [Pfizer (PFE)].
One company, Inovio Pharmaceuticals (INO), is poised to take center stage in this new era with their role in the development of these DNA vaccines for humans, vaccines which are currently being developed towards treating many forms of Cancer, HIV, Hepatitis C, Leukemia, Malaria, and Influenz.
Electroporation
The most important patent is Inovio's own Electroporation technology which is essential to all DNA vaccines created in the future.
By applying an electrical current to the DNA vaccine site, the hosts cell membranes become 'porous and allow the DNA vaccine to enter the cells more effectively.
Financial
Inovio currently has a Market cap of $115 Million dollars, Inovio recently underwent a common offering of $15.1 million in stocks and warrants. Inovio has a total debt of $0, and there has also been extensive insider buying over the last several months.
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