Inovio Biomedical Corporation, a leader in enabling the development of DNA vaccines using electroporation-based DNA delivery, announced it has received a contract for $933,000 from the Department of Defense (US Army) to continue research and development of DNA-based vaccines delivered via its proprietary electroporation system. The contract, titled "Design and Engineering of the Elgen Gene Delivery System for Screening and Validation of Vaccine Candidates of Military Relevance," will run through May 2010. This project is focused on identifying DNA vaccine candidates with the potential to provide rapid, robust immunity to protect against bio-warfare and bio-terror attacks.

Dr Avtar Dhillon, president and CEO of Inovio, said, "We have a productive working relationship with the US Army and are enthusiastic that they are supporting yet another research project with Inovio focused on the use of electroporation for biodefense vaccine development. Furthermore, we believe that knowledge developed from this research is also relevant to the research and development of commercially attractive therapeutic vaccines for targets such as cancer and chronic infectious diseases."

Inovio Biomedical is focused on developing multiple DNA-based immunotherapies and DNA vaccines.