Inovio Announces Positive Results from Preclinical Study of Universal H7N9 DNA Vaccine

Inovio Pharmaceuticals

announced today that in a preclinical study of its influenza DNA vaccine against the newly emergent, virulent H7N9 flu virus it achieved immune response levels exceeding what are considered protective levels in other common influenza subtypes. Interim results from a study in mice in a collaboration with researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg demonstrated that Inovio's H7N9 influenza DNA vaccine achieved greater than 1:40 hemagglutination inhibition (HAI) in 100% of tested animals (n=10), with a geometric mean HAI titer of 1:130 against the A/Anhui/1/13 strain of H7N9 virus. HAI titers at or above 1:40 are considered to denote protection against the influenza virus in humans. These mice received just two vaccinations three weeks apart and the samples tested were from week 5. Since the first-ever infection of a human with this new influenza subtype in early 2013, the very rapid spread of H7N9 reached a total of 131 confirmed human infections in Asia, with