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Inovio’s Co-Founder along with its Lead Antigen Designer Named Among Top 20 Researchers With Most Granted U.S Patents for 2016

Dr. David B. Weiner, Inovio co-founder, and Dr. Jian Yan, Lead Antigen Designer, recognized for their innovative medical and scientific research which led to more than 20 granted U.S. patents in one year

PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa., Jan. 17, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:INO) today announced that Dr. David B. Weiner, its co-founder; and Dr. Jian Yan, the company’s Lead Antigen Designer, have been selected as two of the “Top 20 Translational Researchers” for the year 2016 by the editors of Nature Biotechnology journal in its most recent published issue. The annual selection is based on the number of medical innovations that led to patents a researcher was granted in a calendar year. The designation “translational researcher” refers to basic research that can move from the lab bench to become patented medicine.

Dr. Weiner’s 16 patented innovations and Dr. Yan’s nine granted U.S. patents in 2016 relate to advancing the field of SynCon® immunotherapies and vaccines. Specifically, their patents were related to innovative claims for cancer immunotherapy indications targeting brain, bladder, head & neck, prostate and other cancer types.  In addition, their research led to patented innovations for treating viral infections such as the human papilloma virus (HPV), hepatitis B & C, HIV and influenza. Several of these patents cover VGX-3100, which has advanced to phase 3 pivotal trials, and INO-5401, which is in immuno-oncology efficacy trials in combination with PD-1 and PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitors to treat glioblastoma and metastatic bladder cancer.

Dr. J. Joseph Kim, Inovio's President and CEO, said, "This is a truly well-deserved honor for Drs. Weiner and Yan. This global recognition acknowledges Inovio’s innovation and commitment to creating tomorrow’s medicines with a revolutionary ASPIRE™ (Antigen SPecific Immune REsponses) platform. These innovations and inventions have resulted in multiple clinical trials, collaborations and partnerships. It also recognizes Inovio’s intellectual property focus which has led to a strong patent estate protecting our technology and commercial business goals.” 

Over his career, Dr. Weiner holds more than 100 issued and pending U.S. patents. As the Lead Antigen Designer at Inovio, Dr. Yan has 24 granted patents and 17 pending patents. In 2016, Dr. Weiner joined The Wistar Institute, the nation’s first independent biomedical research institute, an NCI-designated Cancer Center, and an international leader in cancer, immunology and infectious disease research, as Executive Vice President, Director of its Vaccine Center and the W. W. Smith Charitable Trust Endowed Professorship in Cancer Research. Dr. Weiner is Inovio’s co-founder, board member and chair of its scientific advisory board.

About Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Inovio is taking immunotherapy to the next level in the fight against cancer and infectious diseases. We are the only immunotherapy company that has reported generating T cells in vivo in high quantity that are fully functional and whose killing capacity correlates with relevant clinical outcomes with a favorable safety profile. With an expanding portfolio of immune therapies, the company is advancing a growing preclinical and clinical stage product pipeline. Partners and collaborators include MedImmune, Regeneron, Genentech, The Wistar Institute, University of Pennsylvania, the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, DARPA, GeneOne Life Science, Plumbline Life Sciences, ApolloBio Corporation, Drexel University, NIH, HIV Vaccines Trial Network, National Cancer Institute, U.S. Military HIV Research Program, and Laval University. For more information, visit 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 DNA vaccines, our expectations regarding our research and development programs, including the planned initiation and conduct of clinical trials and the availability and timing of data from those trials, and the sufficiency of 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, 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, our ability to support our pipeline of SynCon® active immunotherapy and vaccine products, the ability of our collaborators to attain development and commercial milestones for products we license and product sales that will enable us to receive future payments and royalties, 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, 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, 2016,  our Form 10-Q for the period ended September 30, 2017, and other regulatory filings we make from time to time. There can be no assurance that any product candidate in Inovio's pipeline will be successfully developed, manufactured or commercialized, that final results of clinical trials 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. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this release, and Inovio undertakes no obligation to update or revise these statements, except as may be required by law.

CONTACTS:                                                                                                                            
Investors: Ben Matone, Inovio, 484-362-0076, ben.matone@inovio.com
Media: Jeff Richardson, Inovio, 267-440-4211, jrichardson@inovio.com

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