Inovio acquires rights to pioneering DNA research in Alzheimer's disease and MS

US biotech company Inovio Pharmaceuticals (NYSE MKT: INO) has acquired worldwide rights (excluding China) for early preclinical therapies addressing Alzheimer's disease and multiple sclerosis based on the academic research of Bin Wang, a professor at Fudan University's Shanghai Medical College.

Dr Wang is a pioneer in the field of DNA therapies, having worked closely with David Weiner at the University of Pennsylvania, and was the primary author on some of the earliest DNA vaccine papers and patents. Inovio will make clinical and regulatory milestone payments to the university.

These newly licensed technologies are based on patent-protected and published discoveries from Dr Wang and his collaborator, who found a novel way to generate inducible regulatory T cells, or iTreg. iTreg cells are involved in shutting down immune responses after they have successfully eliminated invading organisms, and also in preventing autoimmunity or inflammatory diseases. In multiple published preclinical studies, this approach generated CD25-iTreg in an antigen-specific manner. These novel approaches could be used to develop therapies targeting major inflammatory diseases like multiple sclerosis and may be used to treat Alzheimer's disease.