Plymouth Meeting-based Inovio saw its stock rise by more than 47 percent after announcing it received a $71 million Department of Defense grant to support the scaled-up manufacturing of the device used to administer its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, writes John George for the Philadelphia Business Journal.

The company also said it is planning to report on the interim results from its early-stage clinical trials of INO-4800 experimental vaccine later this month. The company is already preparing to begin phase-II/III clinical trials later this summer.

The device supported by the new funds is Inovio’s proprietary Cellectra 3PSP smart device. It resembles an electric toothbrush and runs on two AA batteries. It uses a brief electrical pulse to open small pores in cells that allow the DNA plasmids to enter. Once inside, the DNA plasmids direct the cells to produce an antigen that triggers the desired immune responses against COVID-19.

According to J. Joseph Kim, Inovio’s president and CEO, Inovio will work closely with the Department of Defense and other agencies to “provide much needed protection to Department of Defense personnel and their families through development of a safe and effective vaccine against Covid-19.”

Read more about Inovio at the Philadelphia Business Journal by clicking here.

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