SAN DIEGO — The race to create an effective vaccine to fight COVID-19 continues and Inovio Pharmaceuticals in Sorrento Valley is excited with its progress. Its phase one clinical trial is showing that its vaccine induces antibodies and is safe.
News 8 toured Inovio's lab several months ago when work on a vaccine was just getting underway. On Wednesday, News 8 checked back in with Dr. Kate Broderick, Senior VP for Research and Development to see how it’s going.
“There's been a lot of progress in the last few months,” she said.
Inovio started its phase one trial with 40 people and the company reports 94% demonstrated overall immune responses at week six after two doses.
“We're really, really excited about the data that we've generated here at Inovio," said Broderick.
Broderick said the trial has now been expanded to 120 people, including older adults. They're hoping to expand even further this summer into phase two and three trials, but will they be first? A competitor, Moderna, made big news this week with its vaccine's early success and another competitor, NovaVax, received $1.6 billion last week from the federal government to help fund its efforts.
“I don't think it matters who's going to be first, to be perfectly honest with you,” said Broderick. “I think what matters is that the vaccine works and that it's safe.”
Broderick is also approaching all of this with cautious optimism. COVID-19 is so new that we just don't know yet how long any of these antibodies will last. Will there be long-term immunity?
“We don't actually know what types of immune response are required to protect us from COVID-19," said Broderick.
Federal officials said the goal is to have 300 million doses of potential vaccines by January. Broderick hints that may be a bit overly optimistic, but she does see a light at the end of the tunnel.
“A safe and effective vaccine being ready in 2021 is very achievable," she said.