U.S. immunotherapy company Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc (INO.O) on Wednesday said its experimental vaccine to prevent coronavirus infection was shown to produce protective antibodies and immune system responses in mice and guinea pigs, Reuters reports.

We saw antibody responses that do many of the things we would want to see in an eventual vaccine,” said Dr. David Weiner, director of the vaccine and immunotherapy center at the Wistar Institute, which has collaborated with Inovio. “We are able to target things that would prevent the virus from having a safe harbor in the body.

Human testing of the vaccine began in April

Inovio, which began human testing of its vaccine in April, said preliminary results from that trial are expected in June. The 40 healthy participants in the Phase 1 trial are given two shots, four weeks apart, of the vaccine, called INO-4800, and then followed for two weeks.

We are already seeing safety data and it has been benign,” Dr. Katherine Broderick, head of research and development at Inovio, told Reuters. “Some people have slight redness of the arm.”

 
Once the preliminary data are in, she said Inovio expects to approach the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for authorization to move into a Phase 2/3 trial, which could happen in July or August.

In the beginning of the week, a vaccine in development for Covid-19 by the drug maker Moderna showed that it generates an immune response similar to the response seen in people who have been infected by the virus and recovered, the company announced.