Published: Dec 15, 2020
PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa., Dec. 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ Inovio (NASDAQ:INO), a biotechnology company focused on bringing to market precisely designed DNA medicines to treat and protect people from infectious diseases and cancer, today announced the company and a team of scientists from The Wistar Institute, AstraZeneca, the University of Pennsylvania, and Indiana University received a $37.6 million grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) (DARPA), a research and development agency of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense (JPEO-CBRND), to use INOVIO s innovative DNA-encoded monoclonal antibody (dMAb
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In this Dec. 9, 2020, file photo, test specialist Elijah Sanchez disinfects a testing booth at a COVID-19 testing site in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
Updated: 5:30 p.m.
Pennsylvania reported 9,556 new cases of COVID-19 Tuesday, for a statewide case total of 509,320 since the start of the pandemic. Hospital cases are now double what they were during spring COVID-19 peaks, with 6,026 individuals currently hospitalized. The commonwealth also reported 270 new deaths as of 11:59 p.m. Monday, for a total of 12,980 since the start of the pandemic.
Philadelphia reported 1,223 additional confirmed cases on Tuesday, for a total of 81,708 since the beginning of the pandemic. The city’s Department of Public Health confirmed six additional fatalities Tuesday, which brings the total number of deaths attributable to the virus in Philadelphia to 2,141.
Army Issues $25M Sole-Source Contract to Monitor COVID-19 Vaccine Temperatures M-Foto/Shutterstock.com
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The U.S. Army has issued a $25 million sole-source contract to Controlant Global based in Iceland to provide global on-site temperature monitoring for COVID-19 vaccine distributions for as many as 300 million Americans.
According to the award notice, the contract was issued Nov. 25 under a Special Emergency Procurement authorized by President Donald Trump, superseding a traditional full and open government procurement due to “an unusual and compelling urgency” posed by COVID-19.
The contract funded through the CARES Act is part of a joint effort by the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Defense and the Biomedical Advance Research and Development Office of Health and Human Services to track and monitor COVID-19 vaccines to administration sites within and outside the United States.
About the INO-4800 INNOVATE Phase 2/3 Clinical Trial
The lead Principal Investigator for INNOVATE is Dr. Pablo Tebas, Professor of Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. The Phase 2 segment of the clinical trial is designed to evaluate safety, tolerability and immunogenicity of INO-4800 in a 2-dose regimen (1.0 mg or 2.0 mg), in a three-to-one randomization (in a planned total of 400 subjects) to receive either INO-4800 or placebo, to confirm the more appropriate dosing level for each of three age groups (18-50 years, 51-64 years and 65 years and older) for the subsequent Phase 3 efficacy evaluation. The company strives to ensure diversity in enrollment, targeting specific populations that are working or residing in environments with high risk of exposure to SARS-CoV-2, for whom exposure may be relatively prolonged or for whom personal protective equipment (PPE) may be inconsistently used, especially in confined settings.