Firms team up to work on hepatitis C vaccine.

Inovio Biomedical Corp. announced a partnership recently with Sweden-based Tripep AB to develop a vaccine for the hepatitis C virus.

The companies will work to develop a therapy for the virus using a combination of their technologies--Tripep's hepatitis C antigen, which triggers an immune system against the virus, and Inovio's MedPulser DNA Electroporation Therapy System, which delivers DNA into muscle cells.

Hepatitis C is a liver disease caused by a virus found in the blood. About 3.4 million people are infected in the United States according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

However, the number of new infections each year declined an average of about 240,000 in the 1980s to about 30,000 in 2003.

San Diego-based Inovio develops therapies for cancer and other diseases.

Inovio Chief Executive Officer Avtar Dhillon said the agreement represents Inovio's first step to secure full rights to a product. Under the agreement, Inovio will initially get 33 percent ownership in the overall product with the option to increase it to 50 percent after the first phase of clinical trials is completed.

Inovio's MedPulser is already in clinical trials in Europe to treat head and neck cancer.