Inovio raises $86M to launch Voceryq, the first FDA-approved DNA medicine

Inovio Pharmaceuticals closed a stock offering on Nov. 9 that raised roughly $86 million, landing 10 days after the FDA greenlit Voceryq on Oct. 30. The Plymouth Meeting company says the treatment is the first DNA medicine the agency has ever approved. Inovio netted about $80.5 million from the deal.

The raise cleared Inovio's $75 million goal after underwriters snapped up 10.7 million extra shares. It priced at $1.05 a share, a 27.5% haircut to the prior close of $1.45. According to IFR, the offering amounted to roughly 42% of Inovio's outstanding shares — and it marked the company's third stock sale of 2026, after smaller raises in April and July.

Voceryq treats adults with recurrent respiratory papillomatosis, a rare HPV-driven disease that grows tumors in the airway, including on the vocal cords. Many patients go under the knife again and again to have them removed. Treatment is four injections spaced three weeks apart, delivered with Inovio's Cellectra device. Inovio puts the U.S. patient pool at 25,000 people or more.

The list price is $115,000 per dose, or $460,000 for the complete course — the same sticker as Precigen's rival therapy Papzimeos, approved in 2025. Ordering and shipping should kick off around year-end, with a full launch slated for the first quarter of 2027.

Investors celebrated the approval, sending Inovio shares up about 257% in after-hours trading that day. The company reported $48.4 million in cash and short-term investments as of Sept. 30, plus another $10.9 million collected since then from warrant exercises. Together with the offering, that should keep the lights on into late 2027 — a projection that leaves out Voceryq revenue entirely.

Even so, Inovio's latest quarterly filing raises substantial doubt about whether it can keep operating past 2027, and the company expects to burn about $21 million this quarter. Because Voceryq won accelerated approval, Inovio owes the FDA a confirmatory study and must hand in a draft plan by year-end. Proceeds will also bankroll other candidates, including an experimental head and neck cancer treatment.