The Company	12 Months Ended
The Company	Dec. 31, 2020
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]
The Company	The Company Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (the “Company” or “INOVIO”), is a biotechnology company focused on rapidly bringing to market precisely designed DNA medicines to treat and protect people from infectious diseases, cancer, and diseases associated with human papillomavirus (HPV). INOVIO's DNA medicines pipeline is comprised of three types of product candidates: DNA vaccines, DNA immunotherapies and DNA encoded monoclonal antibodies (dMAbs®). In clinical trials, INOVIO has demonstrated that DNA medicines can be delivered directly into cells in the body through its proprietary smart device to consistently activate robust and fully functional T cell and antibody responses against targeted pathogens and cancers. The Company's novel DNA medicine candidates are made using its proprietary SynCon® technology that uses a computer algorithm designed to identify and optimize the DNA sequence of the target antigen (be it virus or a tumor). INOVIO then creates optimized plasmids, which are circular strands of DNA that instruct a cell to produce antigens to help the person’s immune system recognize and destroy cancerous or virally infected cells. INOVIO's patented CELLECTRA® smart delivery devices provide optimized uptake of its DNA medicines within the cell, overcoming a key limitation of other DNA-based technology approaches. Human clinical trial data to date has shown a favorable safety profile of INOVIO's DNA medicines delivered directly into cells in the body using the CELLECTRA® smart device in more than 7,000 administrations across more than 3,000 patients. INOVIO's corporate strategy is to advance, protect and, once approved, commercialize its novel DNA medicines to meet urgent and emerging global health needs. The Company continues to advance and clinically validate an array of DNA medicine candidates that target HPV-associated diseases, cancer, and infectious diseases, such as COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2). The Company aims to advance these candidates through commercialization and continue to leverage third-party resources through collaborations and partnerships, including product license agreements. The Company's partners and collaborators include ApolloBio Corporation., AstraZeneca, Beijing Advaccine, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), GeneOne Life Science, HIV Vaccines Trial Network, the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s Medical CBRN Defense Consortium (MCDC), International Vaccine Institute (IVI), National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Ology Bioservices, the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, Plumbline Life Sciences, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Richter-Helm BioLogics, Thermo Fisher Scientific, the University of Pennsylvania, the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, and The Wistar Institute. The Company and its collaborators are currently conducting or planning clinical studies of its DNA medicines for HPV-associated precancers, including cervical, vulvar, and anal dysplasia; HPV-associated cancers, including head & neck, cervical, anal, penile, vulvar, and vaginal; other HPV-associated disorders, such as recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP); glioblastoma multiforme (GBM); prostate cancer; HIV; Ebola; Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS); Lassa fever; Zika virus; and the COVID-19 virus (coronavirus). INOVIO was incorporated in Delaware in June 2001 and has its principal executive offices in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania.