Technology Overview
What technology has provided the greatest clinical benefit in the history of modern medicine?
"Immunization ranks among the most important health advances of the 20th century. With the exception of safe drinking water, vaccinology has more effectively reduced mortality than any other modality."
"Extraordinary advances in biotechnology make DNA vaccines the most promising area of vaccinology."
Advances in DNA vaccines
Nurse Practitioner
James Mark Simmerman
Jan 2002
Inovio Biomedical: enabling a new generation of vaccines
Inovio Biomedical is focused on the development of next-generation vaccines to harness the body's immune system to not only prevent, but treat, cancers and chronic infectious diseases.
Referred to as DNA-based immunotherapies and DNA vaccines, this emerging field is achieving progressive developments. Advancement has been hindered, however, by the lack of safe, efficient and cost effective DNA delivery methods.
Inovio's electroporation-based DNA delivery technology has shown potential to play a pivotal role in facilitating delivery and enhancing the potency of preventive and therapeutic vaccines.
Inovio is a leader in developing DNA delivery solutions based on electroporation, which uses brief, controlled electrical pulses to create temporary pores in cell membranes and enable dramatically increased cellular uptake of a useful biological material such as a DNA vaccine. Once the DNA vaccine enters a cell, it can "express" the proteins it was engineered to produce. These proteins, or antigens, are designed to be uniquely associated with a targeted cancer or infectious disease, and may stimulate a more powerful immune response against existing disease or if the immune system subsequently encounters the targeted disease.
There are many scientific papers documenting the utility of electroporation, and Inovio's electroporation systems specifically, as a compelling new DNA delivery method. Inovio's dominant patent estate provides a strong foundation for its multiple DNA delivery approaches and systems.
Products being developed by Inovio and its partners consist of two key components:
- Agent. A DNA-based immunotherapy or DNA vaccine targeting a cancer or infectious disease.
- Delivery device. One of Inovio's DNA delivery systems.
Inovio licenses the use of its electroporation-based DNA delivery systems to partners or collaborators to use in conjunction with their proprietary DNA vaccines or DNA-based immunotherapies. Current partners include respected vaccine giants Merck and Wyeth, biotech companies, as well as government and non-government agencies, with multiple products under development.
Inovio is also pursuing development and co-development of proprietary vaccines targeting cancer and infectious diseases.