What happened
Inovio Pharmaceuticals (INO -7.86%) stock rose slightly on an otherwise gloomy day for the wider market. Investors were cheered by the appointment of a new chief medical officer at their company.
So what
That morning, Inovio announced that it had tapped Michael Sumner to be its new chief medical officer. This is hardly Sumner's first time in that position; according to his LinkedIn page, he has held that job at Orexo US, an American unit of the eponymous Swedish healthcare company, since August 2013. Previous to that, he worked in various positions at U.K. pharmaceutical company Shire in a stint that lasted roughly six years, and also held positions at Novartis and Novo Nordisk.
At Inovio, Sumner is specifically to "oversee Inovio's clinical-stage pipeline of DNA medicines, global clinical development, clinical operations, and biostatistics efforts, as well as regulatory affairs, pharmacovigilance, and medical affairs," among other duties, the company wrote in the press release trumpeting his appointment.
Inovio did not specify when Sumner would formally begin his tenure as chief medical officer.
Now what
Inovio hasn't been an investor favorite, to put it delicately. Way back in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, many placed bets on the company in the hope that its coronavirus vaccine candidate would become a go-to jab once developed and marketed. That didn't happen; in fact, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) put the company's clinical trial on a partial hold late in 2020, keeping it in place for roughly one year.
Meanwhile, there has been turbulence in the C-suite, with CEO Joseph Kim stepping down last month. So the appointment of the relatively young but nevertheless very experienced Sumner breathes some hope into Inovio. The company will have to demonstrate to investors that it's really turning the corner, however, for its stock to rally more meaningfully.
