On Jun. 23, 2020, INOVIO announced it had received $71 million funding from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to support the large-scale manufacture of the company’s proprietary CELLECTRA 3PSP smart device and the procurement of CELLECTRA 2000 devices, which are used to deliver INO-4800 directly into the skin.

CELLECTRA^® 3PSP is designed to deliver INO-4800 directly into the skin, where the vaccine prompts the body’s immune system to drive a robust immune response. Interim results of U.S. Phase 1 clinical studies of INO-4800 will be available later this month. A Phase 2/3 efficacy trial is planned to begin this summer (July/August).

The DoD contract, from the JPEO-CRBND-EB through funding provided by the Defense Health Program, builds upon two separate prior $5 million grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), to accelerate the testing of CELLECTRA^® 3PSP. Initial development of this next generation CELLECTRA^® 3PSP smart device began in 2019 with $8.1 million in funding from the medical arm of the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s Medical CBRN Defense Consortium.