Inovio's DNA Delivery Systems

Inovio's leadership advances electroporation's scientific validation and endorsements

Inovio is a leader in advancing the use of electroporation to deliver and enhance the potency of DNA-based immunotherapies and vaccines. Inovio's extensive knowledge of electroporation methods and conditions is protected by an industry-leading patent estate and supported by a large database of pre-clinical data, including data from large animal models and initial human data. Numerous scientific publications document the utility provided by Inovio's DNA delivery technology.

Inovio has developed multiple generations of clinical grade, electroporation-based DNA delivery systems, which consist of electrical pulse generators and needle-electrode applicators. The company continues to advance next-generation product designs and intellectual property including patents to meet anticipated usability and economy requirements for emerging preventive and therapeutic DNA vaccines.

Inovio's electroporation-based DNA delivery systems can increase the cellular uptake of an agent by 1,000 times or more. When used to deliver DNA vaccines, Inovio's systems can increase levels of gene expression (i.e. production of the coded protein) by 100 times or more compared to plasmid DNA delivered without other delivery enhancements. Pre-clinical test results from non-human primate models have shown that Inovio's technology increased the potency of a DNA vaccine by 200 times or more. Interim clinical results have indicated significant enhancements to antibody and T-cell responses using Inovio's electroporation technology.

Technical details of Inovio's electroporation-based DNA delivery systems

Inovio's electroporation systems offer the following technical attributes:

• Can be used with any cell type and at any stage in the cell cycle.
• Can transfer very large sequences of DNA, including multiple genes.
• Safely facilitates the entry of DNA into cells. In contrast to alternative delivery methods, the electrical pulses generated by the electroporation process persist in the body for only a few milliseconds. The plasmid itself does remain in the cell it has entered but is eventually metabolized away.
• Undetectable levels of integration into host chromosomes, reducing the risk of mutagenesis.
• Comparing naked DNA injection, the only other method without safety or cost issues, electroporation can increase transgene expression of plasmid DNA by 100 times or more.
• Robust T-cell immune responses achieved in large animals with difficult antigens.
• Relative to other vectors like lipids, viruses, and gene guns, electroporation is much easier to manufacture and therefore is generally more cost effective.
• Only method that meets the criteria of safety, efficacy, and economy.

Inovio's electroporation intellectual property: validation and confidence

Global pharmaceutical companies including Merck and Wyeth and leading biotechnology companies as well as military, non-government and prominent academic institutions such as the National Cancer Institute and International AIDS Vaccine Initiative are using Inovio's electroporation DNA delivery systems (see Partners in pre-clinical research and clinical studies for a broad array of DNA vaccines targeting many poorly treated diseases.