Exclusive: Inovio Says It Plans On Producing Zika Vaccine By Q3 2016

As the Zika virus continues to spread across the Americas, the medical community is rushing to find a cure. Investors and traders have been speculating that Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc INO is close to finding a cure. "Our broad experience with DNA-based immunotherapies and with MERS specifically suggests we can potentially make an important contribution to developing such a solution," Dr. J. Joseph Kim, Inovio President and CEO, said in a press release on Thursday. "As demonstrated by our recent vaccine development efforts for Ebola, we can readily apply Inovio's technology to target other threatening infectious threats like MERS and Zika virus as well as other emergent infectious diseases." Speaking to Benzinga on Friday, a company spokesperson from Inovia said the company plans to complete testing on a Zika vaccine in mice and monkeys in the third quarter of 2016. The spokesperson added that the company will produce approximately 5,000 to 10,000 doses in the third quarter and be ready to initiate a Phase 1 study in the fourth quarter. The Inovia spokesperson also pointed out that the company and its collaborators don't determine when a product could be used in an emergency. Shares of Inovio were trading higher following the company spokesperson's comments and are higher by more than 13 percent on the day.