PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa., Sept. 12, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:INO) today announced that its Zika vaccine in development has been named a 2016 Technology Breakthrough by the editors of Popular Mechanics magazine, the leading technology voice in the U.S. with millions of readers.

Inovio has advanced its DNA-based Zika vaccine into two trials in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. Inovio expects to have results before the end of this year for its U.S. study.  In addition, the CDC estimates Zika will infect more than 25% of the Puerto Rican population by year end, providing the potential for Inovio’s Zika vaccine and this study’s placebo control design to provide exploratory signals of vaccine efficacy. The company expects to meet with regulators next year to determine the most efficient path forward to develop its Zika vaccine and help mitigate this widespread Zika outbreak that has now expanded into the continental United States.

In selecting Inovio’s Zika vaccine as a 2016 breakthrough technology the magazine cited: “Inovio Pharmaceuticals, the drug company behind what looks to become the fastest vaccine ever to come to market, may be able to halt such a (Zika) spread before it gets out of control. The company shocked the medical world in June by announcing that its Zika vaccine had already received FDA approval for human clinical trials, just nine months after the race to prevent Zika began. If all goes well, its shot will be available to the public as soon as early 2018.”

Dr. J. Joseph Kim, Inovio’s President & CEO, said, “This award recognizes the Inovio scientists and engineers who have advanced Inovio’s Zika vaccine into two human studies.  Inovio was the first to manufacture a Zika vaccine, the first to begin human trials and we expect to have the first human trials data late this year.”  

Inovio is developing its Zika vaccine, GLS-5700, with GeneOne Life Science, Inc. (KSE: 011000) and academic collaborators from the US and Canada who are also working to advance Inovio’s Ebola and MERS vaccines through clinical development.

There are no approved vaccines or therapies for Zika virus infection. While multiple companies and academic groups have announced development plans for Zika virus vaccines, only Inovio and a US government research center have started human clinical studies.

About Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Inovio is taking immunotherapy to the next level in the fight against cancer and infectious diseases. We are the only immunotherapy company that has reported generating T cells in vivo in high quantity that are fully functional and whose killing capacity correlates with relevant clinical outcomes with a favorable safety profile. With an expanding portfolio of immune therapies, the company is advancing a growing preclinical and clinical stage product pipeline. Partners and collaborators include MedImmune, The Wistar Institute, University of Pennsylvania, DARPA, GeneOne Life Science, Plumbline Life Sciences, Drexel University, NIH, HIV Vaccines Trial Network, National Cancer Institute, U.S. Military HIV Research Program, and Laval University. For more information, visit www.inovio.com.

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements relating to our business, including our plans to develop electroporation-based drug and gene delivery technologies and DNA vaccines, our expectations regarding our research and development programs and our capital resources. Actual events or results may differ from the expectations set forth herein as a result of a number of factors, including uncertainties inherent in pre-clinical studies, clinical trials and product development programs, including the Zika vaccine GLS-5700, the availability of funding to support continuing research and studies in an effort to prove safety and efficacy of electroporation technology as a delivery mechanism or develop viable DNA vaccines, the adequacy of our capital resources, the availability or potential availability of alternative therapies or treatments for the conditions targeted by the company or its collaborators, including alternatives that may be more efficacious or cost effective than any therapy or treatment that the company and its collaborators hope to develop, issues involving product liability, issues involving patents and whether they or licenses to them will provide the company with meaningful protection from others using the covered technologies, whether such proprietary rights are enforceable or defensible or infringe or allegedly infringe on rights of others or can withstand claims of invalidity and whether the company can finance or devote other significant resources that may be necessary to prosecute, protect or defend them, the level of corporate expenditures, assessments of the company's technology by potential corporate or other partners or collaborators, capital market conditions, the impact of government healthcare proposals and other factors set forth in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015, our Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2016, and other regulatory filings from time to time. There can be no assurance that any product in Inovio's pipeline will be successfully developed or manufactured, that final results of clinical studies will be supportive of regulatory approvals required to market licensed products, or that any of the forward-looking information provided herein will be proven accurate.

CONTACTS:                                                                                                                             
Investors:  Bernie Hertel, Inovio Pharmaceuticals, 858-410-3101, bhertel@inovio.com
Media:        Jeff Richardson, Inovio Pharmaceuticals, 267-440-4211, jrichardson@inovio.com