Judge denies injunction to force vaccine manufacturing information

Montgomery County Judge Jeffrey S. Saltz has denied COVID-19 vaccine developer Inovio’s request for an emergency preliminary injunction that would have forced its subcontractors, VGXI, to provide proprietary manufacturing information Inovio said it needs for large-scale production of its potential vaccine.

According to John George, reporting for the Philadelphia Business Journal, Inovio officials argued VGXI was contractually required to turn over the information it is seeking because VGXI does not have the manufacturing capacity needed to produce the high volume of doses of its DNA-based, Covid-19 vaccine candidate that Inovio wants.

According to the Business Journal, Inovio spokesman Jeff Richardson said the company is exploring its legal options, including a potential appeal. Richardson said Inovio is continuing discussions with other third-party manufacturers “necessary to support the rapid and large-scale manufacturing of INO-4800 to address the urgent global health need caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The vaccine candidate, called INO-4800, is in early-stage clinical testing. Inovio’s goal is to have 1 million doses on hand this year and 100 million next year, according to the Business Journal. Inovio is based in Plymouth Meeting.

VGXI is based in Blue Bell and has a contract manufacturing plant in The Woodlands, Texas. The company is the parent GeneOne Life Science Inc. of South Korea.

In January, Inovio began preclinical studies of INO-4800 in animal models. Phase 1 clinical trial testing the safety of INO-4800 in 40 volunteers is now underway.

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