US Inovio Supported by Bill Gates Begins Phase 1 Clinical Trial for COVID-19 Vaccine

[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Jo] Inovio, a U.S. pharmaceutical company supported by Bill Gates, is entering Phase 1 clinical trials for a novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine.

On the 6th (local time), according to TechCrunch and others, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Inovio's clinical trial plan for INO-4800 to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. Inovio is expected to begin clinical trials with volunteers as early as this week.

Inovio, led by Korean-American scientist Dr. Joseph Kim, has produced and secured thousands of doses of INO-4800 over the past few weeks for Phase 1 and upcoming Phase 2 trials. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and others have provided funding support for COVID-19 treatment development. Inovio expects to prepare up to 1 million doses of the vaccine by the end of the year after additional clinical trials.

This clinical trial will be conducted on 40 adult volunteers. The company is conducting screenings to select trial participants at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the Pharmaceutical Research Center, a pharmaceutical research center in Kansas City. After several weeks of Phase 1 trials, immune response data and treatment safety data are expected to be available by late summer.

TechCrunch stated, "It may take at least 1 to 1.5 years until final approval," but also expressed hope that "the speed of entering clinical trials is exceptionally fast, so the timeline could be shortened." Prior to Inovio, Moderna, a company based in Boston, also began clinical trials for a COVID-19 vaccine starting in March.