Inovio licenses preclinical immunotherapy vaccines to Roche

Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NYSE-M:INO) granted Roche (SIX:ROG; OTCQX:RHHBY) exclusive, worldwide rights to prostate cancer vaccine INO-5150 and hepatitis B vaccine INO-1800, as well as use of Inovio's Cellectra electroporation technology to deliver the vaccines. Roche also has an option to license additional vaccines. Inovio will receive $10 million up front and is eligible for up to $412.5 million in preclinical R&D support and milestones, plus double-digit tiered royalties.

INO-5150 is a dual-antigen DNA prostate cancer vaccine targeting prostate-specific antigen ( KLK3; PSA) and prostate-specific membrane antigen ( PSMA; FOLH1; GCPII) synthetic consensus immunogens based on human and monkey sequences. INO-1800 is a synthetic DNA vaccine encoding a recombinant consensus plasmid from genotype A through E of the hepatitis B core antigen (HBcAg). Inovio is eligible for additional undisclosed milestones if Roche pursues other indications for INO-5150 and INO-1800, both of which are in preclinical testing. ...