• By
  • Juro Osawa


Pennsylvania-based Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc. specializes in DNA vaccines. Many of its vaccines – for cancers, leukemia, hepatitis C and other diseases — are in mid-stage clinical testing phases.


WSJ: What potential do you see for DNA vaccines?

Mr. Kim: Instead of using viruses as vaccines, DNA vaccines use the database of natural DNA sequences and engineer them. We are trying to show in our clinical testing that they could be safer and more effective.

The traditional idea of vaccines was to prevent childhood diseases, malaria and so on. But DNA vaccines could also be used for treatment, and that’s a new concept called therapeutic vaccines. You could, for example, teach your immune system to kill tumors or clear off hepatitis-infected cells from your liver.

Another advantage of DNA vaccines is that they could potentially be delivered in room temperatures or even in tropical temperatures without being degraded. If you want to deliver traditional vaccines to warmer parts of Africa and Southeast Asia, you have to keep them frozen.

WSJ: What are some other developments in the vaccine industry?

Mr. Kim: Large pharmaceutical companies that traditionally didn’t have vaccine businesses are expanding in that area through different ways. One way is to make acquisitions AstraZeneca , for example, has purchased a relatively large vaccine company called Medimmune Johnson & Johnson has acquired Dutch biotechnology firm Crucell.

More commonly, there are many licensing deals for specific vaccine products. In Asia, Japanese players like Astellas Pharma  and Takeda Pharmaceutical are trying to reinforce their vaccines businesses. Astellas, for example, has signed a vaccine licensing deal with drug developer Vical.

WSJ: Are you working with large pharmaceutical companies?

Mr. Kim: We have had product-based license agreements with Merck and Wyeth, which is now part of Pfizer . We are in discussions with other major players for some of our newer products.

Big companies have the resources needed for commercialization, marketing and sales of vaccine products. Unless we are going to start our own distribution channels, we will have to partner with big pharmaceutical companies at some point.

WSJ: Where does Asia stand in vaccine-related research?

Mr. Kim: Asia is behind the U.S. in many of the biotechnology research areas. But I can imagine Asia leapfrogging in the future because of the prevalence of many diseases like hepatitis B and C, which creates a more urgent need for research. In major scientific journals there are many publications coming out of China, Japan and Korea on vaccines and immunology.

India also has a lot of potential. Serum Institute of India, by volume, is one of the largest vaccine manufacturers in the world. If they can transition from a generic manufacturer to a more research-driven company, they could become a formidable player.




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