{"id":38622,"date":"2020-03-12T11:10:15","date_gmt":"2020-03-12T15:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sciencebusiness.technewslit.com\/?p=38622"},"modified":"2020-03-23T10:43:49","modified_gmt":"2020-03-23T14:43:49","slug":"gates-funding-covid-19-vaccine-delivery-device","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/?p=38622","title":{"rendered":"Gates Funding Covid-19 Vaccine Delivery Device"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Covid-19<\/a>
(CDC.gov)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

12 Mar. 2020. A biotechnology company developing a vaccine for the Covid-19 virus received funding to scale up a delivery device for the vaccine when it’s available. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded $5 million to Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc.<\/a> in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania for mass production of the company’s vaccine delivery system.<\/p>\n

The novel coronavirus or Covid-19 virus is now a global pandemic. A global case tracking dashboard<\/a> hosted by Johns Hopkins University says as of today (12 March), nearly 128,000 cases are reported in 116 countries, leading to more than 4,700 deaths. In the U.S., 1,323 Covid-19 cases are confirmed, with 38 deaths attributed to the disease.<\/p>\n

Inovio Pharmaceuticals is a developer of\u00a0vaccines and therapies<\/a>\u00a0for infectious diseases and cancer, licensing discoveries from the lab of immunologist\u00a0David Weiner<\/a>, now director of the Wistar Institute\u2019s Vaccine Center and previously at University of Pennsylvania. In the company’s process, called\u00a0DMab<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 short for DNA monoclonal antibody \u2014 DNA fragments are ingested into cells, where they\u2019re exposed to 3 to 4 mild electrical pulses. Inovio calls this electronic assistance its\u00a0Cellectra system<\/a>\u00a0that increases the uptake of DNA to generate more antibodies.<\/p>\n

The company’s vaccine delivery device, called Cellectra 3PSP, is a small, portable battery-powered system that administers Innovio\u2019s vaccines through the skin by personnel in the field. As reported by Science & Enterprise<\/a> in June 2019, Inovio received an $8.14 million award from the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency, part of Department of Defense, to develop the system. The company says the device is designed for large-scale infectious disease vaccination campaigns, easily stockpiled without maintenance, and already received a CE symbol indicating clearance to market the device in Europe.<\/p>\n

In January, Inovio received a $9 million grant from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations<\/a>, or CEPI, to develop a vaccine for the Covid-19 virus, one of three awards for rapid creation of a vaccine to stop the spread of the fast-moving pathogen. The company says its Covid-19 vaccine, code-named INO-4800, is in preclinical studies and planned to advance into Phase 1 clinical trials in the U.S. in April. Inovio plans to produce enough Cellectra 3PSP devices in its San Diego manufacturing plant to administer one million doses of INO-4800 by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

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