Does Inovio Pharmaceuticals Have a Successful Track Record of Developing Vaccines?

Given the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, investors are anxious to buy stocks that can deliver any good news about a potential solution to the pandemic. One such stock is Inovio Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: INO), which said it developed a vaccine for COVID-19 in February three hours after the genome for COVID-19 was published.

As of April 28, the company has completed enrollment of 40 healthy volunteers into its phase 1 clinical trial. But an examination of Inovio's past reveals troubling signs that the vaccine's outcome may not be the rosy dream investors are hoping for.

During the 2009 swine flu, Inovio developed an experimental vaccine called SynCon and presented evidence that 100% of pigs vaccinated with SynCon did not catch the swine origin H1N1 virus. Since SynCon achieved success in pre-clinical models, it was forwarded to phase 1 clinical trials for testing in humans. Upon the release of the news in July 2009, Inovio's stock nearly tripled in the span of one month.

Source Fool.com