Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has been selected to receive a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Army’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program to further advance the development of Inovio’s next generation delivery device capable of simultaneously administering multiple vaccines via a skin-surface, needle-free electroporation delivery.
The primary goal of this U.S. Army -funded effort is to further develop a device that would facilitate rapid vaccination of U.S. troops stationed around the world against multiple infectious diseases and protect civilian populations from pandemic threats.
The new needle-free device could be used to deliver Inovio’s portfolio of biodefense and commercial infectious disease vaccines including those for MERS, Ebola, HIV, influenza, and RSV.
The grant is a follow-on to previous grants from the US Department of Defense.
“It is our further goal to advance and commercialize a needle and pain-free electroporation device to be used particularly for prophylactic vaccination,” Dr. J. Joseph Kim, Inovio President and CEO. “This new grant will move us closer to achieving this goal and enable us to target several important commercial infectious disease opportunities that will be well served by non-invasive vaccination.”
