Inovio shares soar again on NIH vax research pact

Shares of Inovio Biomedical jumped again on Monday after the San Diego-based biotech company announced a pact with the NIH Vaccine Research Center to explore new universal influenza jabs and speed development of swine flu vaccines.

Inovio is one of a relative handful of small biotech companies that have been buoyed by the global H1N1 pandemic, with ever-larger estimates coming in for the amount of vaccine that the world will demand to fight off swine flu. The World Health Organization estimates that as many as two billion people will be infected worldwide by H1N1, slightly less than a third of the population. But the major vaccine makers may only be able to supply 900 million doses of a new vaccine.

"There's a scenario where they won't be able to make enough (conventional vaccine)," John McCamant, editor of the Medical Technology Stock Letter, tells the San Diego Union-Tribune. "So if that happens, there could be an opportunity for a smaller company that can ramp up manufacturing."

The possible shortfall is spurring health officials, as well as investors, to consider the possibilities for biotech companies advancing new technologies that could have a big impact fighting the flu. And Inovio is one of the companies to benefit from the scrutiny. Its stock has tripled in value after the company touted the early-stage success of its technology. Inovio is using its SynCon technology to design DNA-based vaccines that can guard against unmatched sub-types and strains of pathogens, providing the opportunity to have vaccines on hand against new strains that are perpetually emerging. Such a vaccine would be able to protect people from swine flu, bird flu, seasonal flu and more. And that would be a radical change from the strain-specific approach that is in use today.

- check out the release
- read the Dow Jones story
- read the story in the San Diego Union-Tribune

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