Full Press Release Details
| Investors: | Bernie Hertel, Inovio Biomedical, 858-410-3101 |
| Media: | Jeff Richardson, Richardson & Associates, 805-491-8313 |
Inovio Biomedical Board of Directors
Adds Two New Members
David J. Williams, former chairman & CEO
of the vaccines business of Sanofi-
Aventis Group, and Keith H. Wells, a vaccine developer for The Salk Institute,
help guide Inovio s development of advanced vaccines
SAN DIEGO, CA October 26,
2009 Inovio Biomedical Corporation (NYSE Amex: INO), a leader in DNA vaccine
design, development and delivery, announced that its board of directors elected
David J. Williams, former chairman and CEO of Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccine
business of Sanofi-Aventis Group, and Keith H. Wells, a senior member of the
Biologics Consulting Group and former director of vaccine development for The
Salk Institute, to the board.
David J. Williams retired
in 2008 as chairman & CEO of Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines business of
the Sanofi-Aventis Group. His leadership moved the company from a niche vaccine
business to the global leader in vaccine development, production and sales,
with revenues of more than $6 billion in 2007. Under his guidance, more than a
billion doses of lifesaving vaccines were administered to more than 500 million
people around the world each year, representing more than 25% of the global
vaccine market. During his tenure the company licensed more than 30 new
vaccines and launched hundreds of business development deals.
For the past 20 years, Keith H. Wells, a senior member of
Biologics Consulting Group, has overseen all facets of vaccine development
including process development and validation, manufacturing operations, and
U.S. and European regulatory strategy for several international companies. He
has directed vaccine development at Acambis, PLC, Oravax, and The Salk
Institute, and provided R&D support to vaccine manufacturing at Merck &
Co. He has a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from State University of New
York Health Science Center at Syracuse.
Joseph Kim, president & CEO of Inovio, said: These two business
leaders each have multiple decades of experience leading and executing the
development and commercialization of cutting-edge vaccine technology and important
new vaccines. Their expertise will be invaluable to Inovio as we advance a new
generation of vaccines - DNA vaccines delivered using the potency-enhancing
capabilities of electroporation - that are displaying superior results and
potential to not only prevent but treat challenging infectious diseases and
Inovio Biomedical s other board members are Avtar Dhillon,
M.D., Inovio s executive chairman; Dr. J. Joseph Kim, Inovio s president &
CEO; Simon Benito, former senior vice president of Merck s vaccine division;
Morton Collins, general partner of Battelle Ventures; and Ng Tee Khiang,
co-founder of Evia Capital Partners and Evia Growth Opportunities.
About Inovio Biomedical Corporation
Inovio Biomedical is focused on the design,
development, and delivery of a new generation of vaccines, called DNA vaccines,
to prevent and treat cancers and infectious diseases. The company s SynCon technology enables the design
of DNA-based vaccines capable of protecting against both known and new, unknown
strains of pathogens such as influenza. Inovio s proprietary
electroporation-based DNA vaccine delivery technology has been shown by initial
human data to safely and significantly increase gene expression and immune
responses. Inovio s clinical programs include HPV/cervical cancer (therapeutic)
and HIV vaccines. An IND has been filed for an avian influenza vaccine. Inovio
is developing its universal and avian influenza vaccines in collaboration with
scientists from the University of Pennsylvania, the National Microbiology
Laboratory of the Public Health Agency of Canada, and the NIH s Vaccine
Research Center. Other partners and collaborators include Merck, Tripep,
University of Southampton, National Cancer Institute, and HIV Vaccines Trial
Network. More information is available at www.inovio.com.