BOSTON, March 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- National securities litigation firm Block & Leviton (www.blockesq.com) is investigating potential claims against Inovio Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: INO) and certain of its officers for securities fraud. Investors who have lost money are encouraged to contact the firm for a free case evaluation.

On February 10, 2020, Inovio claimed to have developed a vaccine for the novel coronavirus within three hours of gaining access to its genetic sequence. Dr. Trevor Smith, the director of research and development at Inovio, said, “We have an algorithm which we designed, and we put the DNA sequence into our algorithm and came up with the vaccine in that short amount of time.” 

Inovio repeated this claim on March 2nd at the U.S. Coronavirus Task Force meeting at the White House. The company’s share price soared over 41% in the next full day of trading – closing at $7.45 per share.  By March 6th, the share price had hit $14.09 per share.

Then, on March 9th, short seller Citron Research published a tweet calling into question the company’s claims, writing:

“[The] SEC should immediately HALT this stock and investigate the ludicrous and dangerous claim that they designed a vaccine in 3 hours.  This has been a serial stock promotion for years.  This will trade back to $2.00.  Investors have been warned.”

On the same day, Inovio’ s share price plummeted over 30%.  Today, the shares are down another 28% in intraday trading.

“We will be investigating whether Inovio and its executives committed securities fraud when discussing its purported coronavirus vaccine, and encourage affected investors to contact us to learn more about their rights,” said Mark Delaney, the Block & Leviton attorney leading the investigation.

If you have purchased or acquired Inovio securities, and have questions about your legal rights, or possess information relevant to this matter, you are encouraged to contact attorney Mark Delaney directly at (617) 398-5600, by email at mdelaney@blockesq.com, or by visiting https://shareholder.law/ino.

Block & Leviton LLP is a firm dedicated to representing investors and maintaining the integrity of the country’s financial markets.  The firm represents many of the nation's largest institutional investors and individual investors in securities litigation throughout the United States. Its lawyers have recovered billions of dollars for its clients.

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CONTACT:

BLOCK & LEVITON LLP
Mark Delaney
(617) 398-5600 phone
260 Franklin Street, Suite 1860
Boston, MA 02110
mdelaney@blockesq.com

SOURCE Block & Leviton LLP