Inovio lands $8m Defense grant for intradermal delivery device

Inovio Pharmaceuticals (NSDQ:INO) said last week that it won an $8 million grant from a U.S. Defense Dept. agency for the intradermal delivery device it’s developing.

The U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency agreed to put more than $8.1 million toward the development of Plymouth Meeting, Pa.-based Inovio’s Cellectra 3PSP, a portable, battery-powered intradermal device to deliver vaccines and therapies including DTRA-developed products. The funding is also slated to back research on DNA vaccines developed by the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases using the new device.

“We are honored that the U.S. government considered highly of Inovio’s track record of innovation and is providing this funding to support the further development of our commercial intradermal vaccine delivery device. Our Cellectra 3PSP is a small, portable user-friendly device which will allow broader access to Inovio’s vaccines and immunotherapies, whether the vaccine is administered to our troops ready to be deployed around the world, at a local pharmacy or in challenging settings such as rural Africa,” principal investigator and R&D SVP Kate Broderick said in prepared remarks.