Inovio, GeneOne Life Get Approval For First-in-Man Zika Vaccine Clinical Trial

(RTTNews) - Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc. (INO) and GeneOne Life Science Inc. announced that they have received approval to initiate a phase I human trial to evaluate Inovio's Zika DNA vaccine (GLS-5700) to prevent infection from this concerning virus. In preclinical testing this synthetic vaccine induced robust antibody and T cell responses in small and large animal models, demonstrating the product's potential to prevent infection from this harmful pathogen in humans.

This phase I, open-label, dose-ranging study with 40 healthy subjects will evaluate the safety, tolerability and immunogenicity of GLS-5700 administered intradermally with CELLECTRA, Inovio's proprietary DNA delivery device.

Inovio and GeneOne are developing the Zika vaccine, GLS-5700, with academic collaborators from the US and Canada with whom they have previously collaborated to advance Inovio's Ebola and MERS vaccines into clinical development.