( MALAGA Spain--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 23...)VGX Pharmaceuticals' Novel HIV and Pandemic Influenza DNA Vaccine,Candidates Trigger Robust Immune Responses and Protection in,Pre-Clinical Models,Health

VGX scientists created four synthetic consensus DNA vaccines to protect against a lethal Vietnamese H5N1strain of avian influenza in mice. One of the vaccines resulted in complete protection of mice from death and illness of the challenge while 2 others had 60-80% protective effects. All of the vaccines were delivered using VGX's proprietary CELLECTRA(TM) DNA Delivery Device. CELLECTRA(TM) is a novel adaptive electroporation device developed by VGX. The avian flu data was presented by Dr. Ruxandra Draghia-Akli, VGX Vice President, Immune Therapeutics Research.

Separately at the opening plenary session, Professor David B. Weiner of the University of Pennsylvania, Conference Chairman and a Co-founder of VGX, presented new data showing extensive T-cell mediated immune responses to VGX's HIV vaccine candidates delivered with CELLECTRA(TM) in non-human primates. Most notably, the monkeys immunized with VGX vaccines displayed HIV-specific T cell responses as much as 10-20 fold greater than those reported in the literature using other vaccine modalities. Induction of high levels of T cell immune responses, especially the CD8+ Killer T cell responses, has long been thought to be important for developing a successful vaccine for HIV.

VGX plans to conduct further preclinical studies for both the HIV and Avian Flu vaccines, including the IND-enabling toxicology studies in 2007.

From the conference in Malaga, Spain, Dr. J. Joseph Kim, President and CEO of VGX, commented, "Our data demonstrates the potential of our DNA vaccine approaches in addressing these significant global health problems. We pla
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