Inovio and Ology to work on Covid-19 vaccine

Inovio Pharmaceuticals said it would work with Ology Bioservices on a DNA vaccine for Covid-19 after Ology was awarded an $11.9m contract from the US Department of Defense (DoD).

Privately held Ology will work with Inovio to make Inovio's DNA vaccine to prevent infection with Covid-19. The programme is designed to deliver the vaccine to the DoD for clinical trials.

Peter Khoury, chief executive of Ology, said: "We are excited to be working with the Department of Defense and Inovio to rapidly respond to this crisis. The advanced development and manufacturing facility operated by Ology Bioservices was designed to respond to just such emergencies as we are now experiencing."

Inovio said its aim was to scale up manufacturing of the vaccine for future studies and potential emergency use. The company said the partnership with Ology increased its manufacturing capacity for the Covid-19 vaccine and established an extra DNA vaccine factory to protect the US military against further disease outbreaks.