Do people really understand what's happening with these vaccines? This one is moving at "warp speed" with $5 million in funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Inovio
INO-4800 DNA Vaccine Description
There are currently more than 70 vaccine candidates in development for COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus, according to the World Health Organization. Moderna and Inovio are among the five vaccine makers that have begun human trials.
INOVIO is a biotechnology company focused on rapidly bringing to market precisely designed DNA medicines to protect and treat people from infectious diseases.
Inovio's proprietary platform hand-held smart device called CELLECTRA® is leading the way forward for activation immunotherapy. CELLECTRA uses a brief electrical pulse to open small pores in the cell reversibly to allow the plasmids to enter.
This one-of-a-kind platform delivers optimized DNA into cells, where it is translated into proteins that activate an individual's immune system to generate a robust targeted T cell and antibody response.
Once inside the cell, the plasmids begin replicating, thereby strengthening the body's own natural response mechanisms.
The advantages of INOVIO's DNA medicine platform are how fast DNA medicines can be designed and manufactured, the stability of the products which do not require freezing in storage and transport, and the robust immune response, safety profile, and tolerability that have been demonstrated in clinical trials.
Inovio is aiming to significantly expand the therapeutic range of monoclonal antibodies with its DNA-encoded monoclonal antibody technology. With dMAb, Inovio encodes DNA to express a monoclonal antibody. Injection of the DNA plasmid into a patient generates robust in vivo monoclonal antibody production.
This approach has the potential to generate in vivo production of therapeutic antibodies. Inovio's DNA medicines are not interfering with or changing in any way an individual's own DNA.
DNA medicines are composed of optimized DNA plasmids, which are small circles of double-stranded DNA that are synthesized or reorganized by a computer sequencing technology and designed to produce a specific immune response in the body.
INOVIO states 'DNA medicines do not interfere with or change in any way an individual's own DNA.'
Source:
https://www.precisionvaccinations.com/vaccines/ino-4800-dna-coronavirus-vaccine
https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/05/14/is-inovio-gaining-ground-in-the-coronavirus-vaccin.aspx
Inovio Pharmaceuticals’ vaccine for coronavirus could be ready by year’s end.
Source:
https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/inovio-pharmaceuticals-vaccine-for-coronavirus-could-be-ready-by-years-end-2020-03-05
The vaccine is called INO-4800 and works by injecting synthetic viral DNA into healthy individuals, causing their bodies' immune systems to develop protective antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Inovio boasts that the vaccine was designed in just three hours after the genome for SARS-CoV-2 was published in February.
Source:
https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/07/14/heres-why-inovio-is-the-front-runner-in-developing.aspx
Inovio, which is financed by the US Defense Department and the NGO CEPI, also said it has been included in US President Donald Trump’s plan to produce hundreds of millions of doses of the vaccine by January as part of Operation Warp Speed.
As for funding, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations has awarded Inovio more than $17 million for development of the vaccine. The company recently said it would use about $1 million from the grant to support large-scale manufacturing. Inovio plans on producing 1 million doses of the vaccine by the end of the year. And the Department of Defense awarded Ology Bioservices $11.9 million to enable rapid production of Inovio's vaccine. Inovio also received $5 million in funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to scale up production of its smart device.
Source:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-biotech-firm-inovio-reports-encouraging-virus-vaccine-results/