The first human injections of a candidate vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus were carried out at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. It is INO-4800, developed by the pharmaceutical company INOVIO Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and funded in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). The results of the preclinical studies are encouraging.
science fanpage – Andrea Centini – 8 April 2020
The human trial of a candidate vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has started in the United States, after the authorization to proceed issued by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the American body responsible for the control of food, drugs and experimental therapies . The preparation, developed by the scientists of the house 
INOVIO Pharmaceuticals, Inc., was funded in part by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) organization and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), the world's largest private foundation led by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife, well-known philanthropists.
This is the third vaccine candidate against the coronavirus responsible for COVID-19 to be admitted to Phase I clinical trials, which plans to test its safety in a few dozen healthy volunteers. The first to be tested on humans was the one developed by the biotechnology company Moderna Inc. and the American National Institutes of Health (NIH), which started an administration procedure at Kaiser Permanente Washington Research starting on March 17 Institute. A few hours after the start of these tests, which provide for the monitoring of volunteers for about 12 months, those in China also started, on 108 healthy citizens of Wuhan aged between 18 and 60 years. Also in this case it will take many months for the transition to the Phase II clinical trial, conducted on hundreds of patients, and to the Phase III one, with thousands of people involved.
The vaccine funded by Bill Gates is called INO-4800 and has shown very encouraging results in preclinical tests on mouse models (mice). Rodents have in fact developed a consistent antibody response to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. As is evident, however, mice are not men and therefore this process will also have to be demonstrated in our species. The vaccine candidate has already been injected into 40 healthy volunteers from the city of Philadelphia, who will be followed up in the coming months by scientists from the University of Pennsylvania's respected Perelman School of Medicine. Within four weeks they will be given a second injection of INO-4800, a type of 
preparation called "DNA vaccine" which is currently used in veterinary medicine.
The FDA approval and the start of clinical trials of the new vaccine candidate represent an important milestone in the fight against coronavirus: “This is a significant step forward in the global fight against COVID-19. Without a new safe and effective vaccine, the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to continue to threaten lives and livelihoods,” said Dr. Joseph Kim, President and CEO of INOVIO Pharmaceuticals, Inc. The scientist said that since when the genetic sequence of the pathogen was made available by Chinese scientists in January, his teams worked hard around the clock to get this result.
American scientists had an advantage having developed a vaccine candidate against MERS, caused by a coronavirus very similar to SARS-CoV-2. In that case, the people in the trial developed “high levels of antibody responses,” seen in 95 percent of participants, as well as a “large-scale T-cell response in nearly 90% of study participants,” the statement read. pharmaceutical company press. The preparation was also well tolerated. These are all very encouraging indications for the continuation of the INO-4800 experimentation. The company has already produced thousands of doses ahead of the Phase II clinical trial, and is expected to reach one million by the end of the year. The hope is that the preparation will be able to brilliantly pass all the clinical studies, and thus arrive at obtaining a valid and effective vaccine within 12-18 months, the timing also mentioned several times by the World Health Organization.
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