Wednesday, February 18, 2009

VGX Pharmaceuticals: PENNVAX and CELLECTRA

Dr. J. Joseph Kim (no, not me) is president and CEO of VGX Pharmaceuticals. We're both MIT alumni, so we share one similar connection. There have been some exciting news from VGX recently.

Here's the headline from a recent press release: "VGX Pharmaceuticals Proprietary DNA Vaccines Delivered with Electroporation Achieve Immune Responses Superior to Recombinant Adenovirus Serotype 5 (Ad5) Vectors"

That sounds very exciting to me because there is such a need for better vaccines. Plus, we really need an HIV vaccine. This press release deals with some results on the PENNVAX HIV Vaccine Program. Researchers have been working on delivering the PENNVAX™ DNA vaccines using a novel electroporation device called CELLECTRA®.

Collaborators include the University of Pennsylvania, VGX, and Merck. These results are truly exciting and they reflect what can happen when you apply novel technologies in healthcare. Perhaps we will see a safe and effective HIV vaccine someday.

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