Inovio Sues Contract Manufacturer in Midst of COVID-19 Vaccine Race

Inovio Pharmaceuticals has sued its primary vaccine manufacturer VGXI for alleged breach of contract over production of Inovio’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

The Pennsylvania-based drugmaker filed the complaint in a Pennsylvania state court, alleging that the Texas-based manufacturer has violated a 2008 supply agreement by not providing a technology transfer to other contract manufacturers chosen to make the vaccine, INO-4800, after VGXI said it was unable to produce the vaccine in sufficient quantities.

The suit alleges that the Texas manufacturer repeatedly told Inovio since January that it could not manufacture 1 million doses of the vaccine by the end of the year as requested. Inovio subsequently selected two other contract manufacturers and asked VGXI to provide it with the critical technology transfer needed to manufacture the vaccine.

Inovio further alleges that VGXI refused to provide the technology transfer and notified it last month that Inovio was terminating the supply agreement.

The drugmaker is asking the court to order VGXI to provide the technology transfer to avoid “unimaginable and immeasurable irreparable harm to all of humanity.”

VGXI says that Inovio filed the lawsuit to try to take the manufacturer’s intellectual property and said it is eager to have this matter resolved in a court of law.

Inovio recently received approval to study its vaccine candidate in a phase 1/2 trial in South Korea. It is conducting a similar trial in the U.S., with results expected this month (DID, June 5).

INO-4800 is not one of the five vaccine candidates selected for development by the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed (DID, June 4).

Read the complaint here: www.fdanews.com/06-05-20-InovioVGXISuit.pdf. — Jordan Williams