Inovio Is in a Race to Develop a COVID-19 Vaccine, but Can It Possibly Win?
Inovio Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: INO) made waves in February when it announced it had produced a COVID-19 vaccine candidate after only three hours of effort. As with other companies announcing efforts toward developing a COVID-19 vaccine or therapy, Inovio's stock immediately ignited, placing it firmly on the radar of curious investors. Nonetheless, Inovio's scientific approach remains unproven, and recent issues suggest that the company's leadership may not be up to the task of bringing their vaccine to market even if it works.
Specifically, Inovio is currently facing down a class action lawsuit from its shareholders, who claim that the company's initial statements regarding its vaccine development efforts were highly misleading. If the shareholders win, Inovio's stock price will suffer.
In short, the shareholders accuse Inovio's leadership of overstating the significance of their vaccine candidate, alleging that the company's long-term value will be harmed by such exaggerations. They're not wrong about Inovio jumping the gun with its vaccine candidate announcement. While Inovio did produce results rapidly, it was only able to do so because the genetic sequence of the coronavirus had been released hours earlier. Given that Inovio's vaccine candidate is merely a physical copy of the viral genome prepared such that it can readily enter human cells using the company's proprietary platform, it is highly likely that Inovio did no testing or confirmation of any kind before making the announcement.
Source Fool.com
