Benzinga | Jan 4, 2021 08:02AM EST

INOVIO and Advaccine Announce Exclusive Partnership To Commercialize COVID-19 DNA Vaccine Candidate, INO-4800, In Greater China

PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa. and SUZHOU, China, Jan. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- INOVIO (NASDAQ:INO), a biotechnology company focused on bringing to market precisely designed DNA medicines to treat and protect people from infectious diseases and cancer, and Advaccine Biopharmaceuticals Suzhou Co., Ltd. ("Advaccine"), an emerging biotech company with next-generation technology in vaccines, both preventive and therapeutic, today announced that they have entered into a collaboration and license agreement for COVID-19 DNA vaccine candidate INO-4800.

Under the collaboration and license agreement, Advaccine will have the exclusive right to develop, manufacture and commercialize INO-4800 within Greater China, inclusive of Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. Advaccine will license its plasmid manufacturing process for use with INO-4800 and other INOVIO pipeline product candidates to INOVIO with the right to sublicense to INOVIO's manufacturing partners. Additionally, Advaccine will provide its clinical data to INOVIO in support of INOVIO's global INO-4800 regulatory filings and INOVIO will provide its INO-4800 clinical data for Advaccine to incorporate into its marketing applications in Greater China. Advaccine will make to INOVIO an upfront payment of $3.0 million as well as pay an aggregate of $108.0 million upon the achievement of specified development and sales-based milestones for INO-4800 in Greater China. INOVIO will be entitled to receive a royalty equal to a high single-digit percentage of annual net sales in each region within Greater China.

Dr. J. Joseph Kim, President and Chief Executive Officer of INOVIO, said, "INOVIO's partnership with Advaccine enables us to leverage their deep expertise, capabilities and network across the region -- making it possible to rapidly produce and if and when approved, distribute our vaccine candidate to more people across Greater China. This agreement also provides INOVIO with an Asian manufacturing partner with a near-term focus on INO-4800 and a long-term manufacturing resource potentially for other INOVIO products. We are grateful for Advaccine joining our global manufacturing coalition as a dedicated resource for Greater China and look forward to our continued partnership in the fight against COVID-19."

Dr. Bin Wang, Founder and Chairman of Advaccine, said, "We are proud to build upon our current partnership with INOVIO and join their global manufacturing consortium. Advaccine will leverage its innovative large-scale DNA plasmid manufacturing process developed over years -- our GMP manufacturing facility in Suzhou has the capacity to produce over one hundred million doses of DNA vaccine per year. Given the strong safety profile and robust immune responses observed in the U.S. and China clinical trials of INO-4800, we are confident in the vaccine candidate and are fully committed to the manufacturing of INO-4800 for Greater China. INO-4800 is projected to be stable at room temperature for over a year, at 37oC for more than a month, and with a five-year projected shelf life at normal refrigeration temperature. INO-4800 does not need to be frozen during transport or storage -- a critical element when considering the feasibility of distribution in Greater China and globally."

INOVIO and Advaccine have been working together to advance the clinical development of INO-4800 in China, having all 640 subjects dosed for the first vaccination in Phase 2 clinical trial in China. The Phase 2 clinical trial of INO-4800 in China has enrolled both adults who are 18-59 years old and older adults (60 years and older) with the primary endpoints of evaluating safety and immunogenicity within the Chinese population. The dosing regimen involves two vaccinations at 0 and 28 days with either 1.0 mg or 2.0 mg dosing levels, similar to the independently run Phase 2 segment of INOVIO's Phase 2/3 clinical trial for INO-4800 in the U.S, called INNOVATE (INOVIO INO-4800 Vaccine Trial for Efficacy).

INOVIO also recently announced it has started dosing of subjects in the Phase 2 segment of INNOVATE. For more information about the INNOVATE clinical trial, see www.clinicaltrials.gov, identifier NCT04642638.