SAN DIEGO, Sep 16, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Inovio Biomedical Corporation (NYSE Amex:INO), a leader in DNA vaccine design, development and delivery, announced today that Dr. J. Joseph Kim, CEO, has been invited to present at EmTech, the Emerging Technologies Conference hosted by MIT and produced by MIT's Technology Review magazine. The conference will take place September 22nd - 24th on the MIT campus in Cambridge, MA. Dr. Kim will present during a session at 9:35 a.m. - 10:45 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 23, in the Kresge Auditorium.
Dr. Kim will discuss Inovio's novel platform for developing and delivering "universal" DNA-based vaccines against diseases such as human papillomavirus, hepatitis C virus, HIV, and influenza. Inovio's universal vaccines have shown preclinical results indicating their ability to protect against new, unmatched strains of an infectious disease, for example, the currently circulating H1N1 "swine flu." Past business leaders invited to speak at MIT's Emerging Technologies Conference include Jeffrey Immelt, CEO, General Electric; Jeff Bezos, Founder, Amazon.com; and Sophie Vandebroek, Chief Technology Officer, Xerox.
In addition to Dr. Kim, the keynote speaker of the conference's closing session on Tuesday, Sept. 22, will be Dr. Robert S. Langer, who serves on Inovio's scientific advisory board and is a professor of chemical and biomedical engineering at MIT. Dr. Langer served as a member of the United States Food and Drug Administration's SCIENCE Board, the FDA's highest advisory board, from 1995-2002 and as its Chairman from 1999-2002.
About Technology Review and EmTech@MIT
Established in 1899, Technology Review is the oldest technology magazine in the world; it aims to promote understanding about emerging technologies and to analyze their commercial, social, and political impacts. Dr. Kim was recognized by MIT's Technology Review in 2002 as one of the world's Top 100 Young Innovators.
EmTech@MIT brings Technology Review's mission to life by showcasing the most important emerging technologies and explaining their impact. EmTech@MIT is packed with groundbreaking demos, thought-provoking keynotes, and interactive breakout sessions. The conference annually draws more than 900 technology leaders--senior executives, researchers, and developers from industry; venture capitalists; academic researchers; and students, faculty, and staff from MIT, one of the country's premier universities. In addition, an extensive list of media organizations have in the past sent representatives.
About Inovio Biomedical Corporation
Inovio Biomedical is engaged in the design, development, and delivery of a new generation of vaccines, called DNA vaccines, focused on cancers and infectious diseases. The company's SynCon(TM) technology enables the design of DNA-based vaccines capable of providing cross-protection against new, unmatched 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 and the National Microbiology Laboratory of the Public Health Agency of Canada. 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.
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements relating to our plans to develop electroporation-based drug and gene delivery technologies and DNA vaccines. 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 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 DNA vaccines, 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 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 combined technology by potential corporate or other partners or collaborators, capital market conditions, our ability to successfully integrate Inovio and VGX Pharmaceuticals, 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, 2008, our Form 10-Q for the six months ended June 30, 2009, 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.