Plymouth Meeting-based Inovio Pharmaceuticals has received a $9 million grant from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations to use its DNA medicine platform to develop a vaccine for the new strain of a coronavirus, writes Sophie Burkholder for the Philadelphia Magazine.

The company believes that DNA medicine could provide a solution not just for coronavirus, but also for other viruses and cancer. This approach focuses on administering small doses of exposure to the virus through DNA medicine.

“We have a very adaptive platform,” said Dr. Joseph Kim, president and CEO of Inovio. “There’s no actual linkage to the disease, because the DNA itself does not cause the human to receive the disease and its symptoms.”

To speed up the development process, the company is partnering with various agencies and companies to increase the scale of manufacturing and distribution.

“But to do all of this, we also need cooperation from the proper regulatory agencies in charge of recognizing when something’s a public health emergency, and that’s already beginning to happen,” said Kim. “The FDA and other federal agencies are definitely starting to see the potential use of this therapy and the need for moving forward with trials.”

Read more about Inovio Pharmaceuticals at the Philadelphia Magazine by clicking here.

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