What happened
Actions of Inovio Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: INO) They recovered on Thursday after being beaten earlier this week. The stock rose 8.5% at 11:05 am EDT.
Inovio did not report new developments. However, investors appear to believe the sell-off was overblown after the company’s announcement Tuesday of tentative results from an early-stage clinical study of the COVID-19 INO-4800 vaccine candidate.
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And that
The biotechnology stock still has a long way to go to regain lost ground. Inovio shares fell 37% this week as of Wednesday’s close.
Investors reacted negatively to Inovio’s lack of details in its interim results for INO-4800. The company said 94% of the participants “demonstrated general immune responses” after receiving two doses of the experimental vaccine. However, Inovio did not disclose how many patients had neutralizing antibodies that could prevent infection.
However, Inovio will provide more details of its phase 1 study of INO-4800 in the not too distant future. If the COVID-19 vaccine progresses to a phase 2/3 study, current suspicions about efficacy problems should largely disappear.
Now what
Investors should get some answers very soon. Inovio expects to start the INO-4800 phase 2/3 study this summer if the FDA gives the go-ahead for the clinical trial. The company also plans to publish the full data from its phase 1 study of the COVID-19 vaccine candidate in a peer-reviewed medical journal. At this point, however, the publication date is uncertain.
