Inovio Pharmaceuticals, together with CEPI, has dosed subjects in a Phase 1, first-in-human clinical trial to evaluate INO-4500, its DNA candidate vaccine to prevent infection from the Lassa virus. Inovio plans to enroll approximately 60 volunteers in this placebo controlled, blinded, dose escalation study evaluating INO-4500 for safety, tolerability and immune responses. This Inovio trial represents the first Lassa candidate vaccine to enter the clinic. This Inovio-sponsored trial, as well as its INO-4500 program, is fully funded through a global partnership with CEPI – the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.
"This is an important development in our work to accelerate the development of vaccines against emerging infectious diseases,” Melanie Saville, Director of Vaccine Development at CEPI, said. “With marked increases in the number of cases documented in Nigeria over the last two years and outbreaks occurring annually, Lassa fever remains a serious public health threat across West Africa. We welcome Inovio's work and progress which could pave the way to reducing the great suffering caused by this disease."
"Inovio's class-leading synthetic nucleic vaccines delivered intradermally with its proprietary CELLECTRA® efficacy enhancing systems are well suited to rapidly produce countermeasures against emerging viral threats potentially protecting large populations from a pandemic. Inovio has rapidly advanced several global health candidate vaccines, including those against HIV, Ebola, MERS, and Zika, and has reported above 90% immune response rates from multiple clinical studies. We join our partner CEPI in the shared quest to bring new vaccines to medicine and save lives," Dr. J. Joseph Kim, Inovio's President and CEO, said.
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In a previously published paper, Inovio reported that its DNA candidate vaccine against Lassa fever provided 100% protection in non-human primates challenged with a lethal dose of the virus in a pre-clinical study funded by a $3.5 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Lassa fever is an acute viral illness that occurs in West Africa and can cause recurrent large outbreaks with high case fatality rates in the region. There is no licensed vaccine or approved treatment for Lassa fever.
Leveraging results of this study, Inovio expects to advance its Lassa candidate vaccine into a Phase 2 field trial in endemic countries of West Africa later in 2019/2020. With satisfactory Phase 2 data, CEPI in cooperation with local regulatory authorities and the WHO, may stockpile the Inovio vaccine for future use throughout the region. For more information on this study.
Last year, Inovio received a $56 million grant from CEPI under which Inovio will develop vaccine candidates through Phase 2 against Lassa fever and MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome.) The shared goal of Inovio and CEPI is for a Lassa vaccine to be available as soon as possible for emergency use as a stockpile post-Phase 2 testing.
Inovio's synthetic nucleic acid platform of immunotherapies and vaccines deliver optimized synthetic antigen genes into cells with CELLECTRA® immune enhancing systems, where they are translated into protein antigens that activate an individual's immune system to generate robust targeted T cell and antibody responses. Inovio's immunotherapies function exclusively in vivo, and have generated an antigen-specific immune response against targeted diseases in all clinical trials to date.
Lassa fever, also known as Lassa hemorrhagic fever, is an acute viral disease which occurs mostly in West Africa. The disease can cause a range of outcomes including fever, vomiting, and swelling of the face, pain in the chest, back and abdomen, bleeding of various parts of the body including the eyes and nose -- and death. This infection is spread through contact with infected rodents. Person to person transmission is also possible, via bodily fluids, albeit less common. Lassa virus infection in West Africa is estimated to affect 300,000 people annually, resulting in approximately 5,000 deaths, as disease and infection surveillance has been poor. Because of difficulties in diagnosing Lassa fever and the remoteness in many areas that the disease occurs in, the numbers of reported cases and deaths are very likely significantly lower than the true numbers of cases and deaths. Though the majority (about 80%) of Lassa virus-infected persons are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms, the infection can be quite serious to fatal in others. There are no licensed vaccines or treatments specifically for Lassa. The case-fatality among patients hospitalized for Lassa fever is about 15% to 20%, and in some epidemics case-fatality has reached 50% in hospitalized patients -- e.g. in the 2015-2016 Nigeria portion of the West Africa outbreak. Of the survivors of Lassa fever, about one-third have sudden-onset hearing loss. In Nigeria, an unprecedented outbreak has been underway this year, with more cases recorded and reported in the first two months than in any previous full year there. From January 1 to December 31, 2018, a total 633 confirmed and 20 probable cases were reported to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control with 171 deaths among confirmed cases and 20 in probable cases, yielding a 27% case-fatality rate in confirmed cases.