Inovio Pharmaceuticals Stock Rallies After Covid-19 Manufacturing Deal

Shares of biotechnology company, Inovio Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: INO) are rallying premarket after the company announced on Thursday a deal with Japanese based Kaneka Corp to manufacture its Covid-19 candidate, INO-4800.

The two companies did not disclose the terms of the agreement.

However, Kaneka will join Inovio's existing manufacturing partners Thermo Fisher Scientific, Richter-Helm BioLogics and Ology Biosciences to help increase the vaccines supply.

“Our partnership with Kaneka Eurogentec, one of the world's largest and most experienced plasmid manufacturers, provides additional scale to our growing global manufacturing coalition. Kaneka Eurogentec will be a crucial member of INOVIO's global manufacturing consortium, supporting our plans to produce, manufacture and scale our COVID-19 vaccine candidate, INO-4800,” commented Inovio's President and CEO, Dr J Joseph Kim.

The company's current Covid-19 vaccine trial is currently in the Phase 2 segment of its Phase 2/3 clinical trial for INO-4800.

Inovio's stock price is up 9.90% at $13.76 premarket after closing on Thursday at $12.52 per share.