Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:INO) has announced that it has reached an agreement with Bioject Medical Technologies Inc, to acquire all of the latter’s assets, which includes the company’s novel needle-free jet injection technology. INO has agreed to pay a total of $5.5 million, in cash and stock, for all intellectual properties and devices of Bioject.
It is expected that Inovio will combine the technology, with its own needleless skin-surface electroporation technology, to develop an integrated non-invasive delivery device. The goal of the acquisition is to help Inovio in developing preventative immunization, using the company’s DNA vaccines. It should be noted here that Inovio has already tested the technology, with its EP system and has seen success in both animal and human experiments.
DNA immunotherapy needs to deliver at a cellular level, in order to be effective. However, most delivery mechanisms do not go beyond the tissue level, except for jet injections and needle injections. The combination of the needle-free jet injection technology with the EP would significantly reduce the cost of vaccines, reduce inconsistency in administration and as well as pain.
Furthermore, Inovio has been working on utilizing the needleless vaccine administration technique, for the treatment of various diseases. However, the development of these techniques is still in the clinical program phase of development. The company had also received a grant of $500,000, from the US Army Small Business Innovation Research program, to further develop this technology.
However, despite strengthening its position as the developer of DNA vaccine delivery systems, INO declined in the market, owing mainly to its 4Q2015 report. As per the filing, Inovio had a loss of $18 million during the quarter. This translated to a per share loss of $0.25. Analysts had expected the company to post a negative EPS of $0.19. This brought the company’s FY2015 loss to $0.44 per share or $29.2 million. The company had full year revenues of $40.6 million.
Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:INO) recorded a decline of 2.91% in its share value, to reach a close at $6.68, at the end of the March 14 trading session.
