Inovio Appoints Vaccine Industry Leader to its Scientific Advisory Board

BLUE BELL, Pa., March 7, 2012  /PRNewswire/ -- Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE Amex: INO) announced today that a global vaccine industry leader has joined the company's Scientific Advisory Board. Dr. Anthony Ford-Hutchinson, with over 30 years' experience in vaccine development and commercialization and formerly at Merck and Co., will  contribute strategic business and scientific guidance as the company advances its preclinical and clinical-stage pipeline of synthetic vaccines for cancer, HIV, influenza and other infectious diseases. During his tenure at Merck, Dr. Ford-Hutchinson played a leadership role in the development of several new blockbuster vaccines, including Gardasil®, Zostavax®, Proquad® and Rotateq®. He was also responsible for the development of many important Merck drugs, including Singulair®, Arcoxia® and Isentress® for asthma, pain/inflammation, and the treatment of HIV infection.

Dr. Anthony Ford-Hutchinson, who retired last month from Merck as Senior Vice President, Vaccines Research and Development and Chairman of the Board of Directors for MSD Wellcome Trust Hilleman Labs, has held many other prominent positions at Merck in Canada and the USA, including Executive Vice President for Worldwide Research. He was responsible for all strategic decisions in Merck's vaccine R&D following appointment as franchise head in 2005, producing a pipeline with three vaccines in phase III trials and a number of others in earlier development.

Dr. Ford-Hutchinson said, "Inovio has assembled an advisory board of eminent scientists and vaccine leaders to provide expert advice in vaccinology, immunology, and vaccine development, and I am honored to join this elite group. As vaccine developers we have for decades sought to achieve immune stimulation with robust therapeutic and universal capabilities and I am impressed by Inovio's early data that support these goals."

Dr. J. Joseph Kim, President and CEO, said, "We welcome this eminent scientist and global vaccine leader to Inovio's Scientific Advisory Board. Dr. Ford-Hutchinson has made extraordinary scientific contributions throughout his distinguished career. His strategic research expertise will be invaluable as Inovio continues to define and develop new products based on its synthetic vaccine technology and aggressively advances its multiple phase I and phase II clinical programs."

About Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Inovio is revolutionizing vaccines to prevent and treat today's cancers and challenging infectious diseases. Its SynCon® vaccines are designed to provide universal cross-strain protection against known as well as newly emergent unmatched strains of pathogens such as influenza. These synthetic vaccines, in combination with Inovio's proprietary electroporation delivery, have been shown in humans to generate best-in-class immune responses with a favorable safety profile. Inovio's clinical programs include Phase II studies for cervical dysplasia, leukemia and hepatitis C virus and Phase I studies for influenza and HIV. Partners and collaborators include the University of Pennsylvania, Merck, ChronTech, National Cancer Institute, U.S. Military HIV Research Program, NIH, HIV Vaccines Trial Network, University of Southampton, US Dept. of Homeland Security and PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative. More information is available at www.inovio.com.

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements relating to our business, including our plans to develop electroporation-based drug and gene delivery technologies and synthetic vaccines and our capital resources. Actual events or results may differ from the expectations set forth herein as a result of a number of factors, including uncertainties inherent in pre-clinical studies, clinical trials and product development programs (including, but not limited to, the fact that pre-clinical and clinical results referenced in this release may not be indicative of results achievable in other trials or for other indications, that the studies or trials may not be successful or achieve the results desired, that pre-clinical studies and clinical trials may not commence or be completed in the time periods anticipated, that results from one study may not necessarily be reflected or supported by the results of other similar studies and that results from an animal study may not be indicative of results achievable in human studies), the availability of funding to support continuing research and studies in an effort to prove safety and efficacy of electroporation technology as a delivery mechanism or develop viable synthetic vaccines, the adequacy of our capital resources, the availability or potential availability of alternative therapies or treatments for the conditions targeted by the company or its collaborators, including alternatives that may be more efficacious or cost-effective than any therapy or treatment that the company and its collaborators hope to develop, evaluation of potential opportunities, issues involving product liability, issues involving patents and whether they or licenses to them will provide the company with meaningful protection from others using the covered technologies, whether such proprietary rights are enforceable or defensible or infringe or allegedly infringe on rights of others or can withstand claims of invalidity and whether the company can finance or devote other significant resources that may be necessary to prosecute, protect or defend them, the level of corporate expenditures, assessments of the company's technology by potential corporate or other partners or collaborators, capital market conditions, the impact of government healthcare proposals and other factors set forth in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2010, our Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2011, and other regulatory filings from time to time. There can be no assurance that any product in Inovio's pipeline will be successfully developed or manufactured, that final results of clinical studies will be supportive of regulatory approvals required to market licensed products, or that any of the forward-looking information provided herein will be proven accurate.

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CONTACTS:
Investors: Bernie Hertel, Inovio Pharmaceuticals 858-410-3101 [email protected]
Media: Jeff Richardson, Richardson & Associates 805-491-8313 [email protected]

SOURCE Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc.