Company focused on single dose vaccine against multiple strains of COVID
ATLANTA, GA, January 11, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) – via NewMediaWire – GeoVax Labs, Inc. (NasdaqCM: GOVX), a biotechnology company that develops immunotherapies and vaccines against cancer and infectious diseases, today announced that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has awarded the company a Innovative Research Grant for Small Business (SBIR) in support of the development of a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
The Phase 1 grant, entitled “Pre-clinical development of GV-MVA-VLP vaccines against COVID-19,”It will support GeoVax’s ongoing design, construction and preclinical testing of candidate vaccines in preparation for clinical trials in humans. The effectiveness test will be carried out in collaboration with the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB).
GeoVax is leveraging its GV-MVA-VLP ™ platform to meet the global need for an effective and safe SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. Unique among other vaccines in development, GeoVax experimental candidates are specifically designed to provide a broader and longer-lasting level of protective immunity against SARS-CoV-2, avoiding the potential side effects that may limit the vaccine’s usefulness and acceptance. GeoVax’s candidate vaccines will be tested for antigen expression and genetic stability under conditions designed to simulate those in manufacture, which will demonstrate the likely suitability of each vaccine construction as a candidate for full-scale production and clinical testing.
Mark Newman, Ph.D., Scientific Director of GeoVax, commented: “The first generation of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines are based on the ‘Spike (S)’ protein and are designed to induce antibodies that block infection of human cells, an effect known as virus neutralization. The GV-MVA-VLP platform offers the opportunity to design and test candidate vaccines that differ significantly through the inclusion of several SARS-CoV-2 proteins that are presented to the immune system as virus-like particles (VLPs). Our goal is to safely increase the potency and effectiveness of the vaccine by inducing neutralizing antibodies and cellular immune responses to optimize the level of protection against new existing and potential variants of COVID, as well as establishing immune memory to provide protection for several years. Vaccines using the GV-MVA-VLP platform developed for other pathogens have proven to be effective with a single dose, with great durability, which would be a significant advantage for global vaccination campaigns against SARS-CoV-2 ”.
David Dodd, President and CEO of GeoVax, added: “We are pleased to receive this SBIR Phase 1 funding award, which will complement the internal resources allocated to our COVID-19 vaccine program and accelerate our progress in clinical trials in humans. We appreciate and welcome this support from NIH / NIAID, which follows our signature of a Patent and Biological Materials License Agreement providing GeoVax with access to the main NIAID patent rights and providing GeoVax with non-exclusive rights to develop, manufacture and market our COVID-19 vaccine. As we continue to move forward with our COVID-19 vaccine program, we continue to discuss and negotiate related to additional financial support that will further accelerate our progress in clinical trials and supply chain preparation. We anticipate that additional vaccines, like ours, will be needed against COVID-19, as well as potential new strains and variants, requiring a broader immune response, strong durability, excellent safety in various cohort populations and minimal refrigeration for distribution and supply throughout the world. world . These attributes represent the focus of our overall ‘COVID-X’ vaccine program (think ‘COVID-20, -21’, etc.). “
About COVID-19
Coronaviruses are common in many species of animals, including bats and birds. These viruses can evolve to cross animal species and infect humans and spread rapidly from person to person, resulting in lethal but rare respiratory infections. Recent epidemics with the SARS and MERS coronavirus resulted in 774 and 858 deaths, respectively. Since 2015, there have been no case reports of SARS and MERS, but in January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) identified a new coronavirus, recently called SARS-CoV-2, in the city of Wuhan, China. On January 31, 2020, WHO declared the new coronavirus as a global health emergency, and on March 11, 2020, WHO declared a global pandemic. Worldwide, more than 85 million people have been infected (more than 20 million in the United States), with almost 2 million deaths (more than 350,000 in the United States). The situation is fluid, with infection and death statistics changing significantly on a regular basis.
About GeoVax
GeoVax Labs, Inc. is a clinical biotechnology company that develops human vaccines against infectious diseases and cancers using a new particle-based vaccine platform similar to the patented modified vaccine virus (MVA-VLP). On this platform, MVA, a large virus capable of carrying various vaccine antigens, expresses proteins that assemble into VLP immunogens within (at Vivo) the person receiving the vaccine. The production of VLPs in the person being vaccinated mimics the production of viruses in a natural infection, stimulating the humoral and cellular arms of the immune system to recognize, prevent and control the target infection. Vaccines derived from MVA-VLP have been shown to induce durable immune responses in the host similar to a live attenuated virus, while providing the safety features of a vector with defective replication. The goal of GeoVax technology (GV-MVA-VLP ™) is to provide high efficacy in a single dose, without the need for additional immune response components (“adjuvants”), great durability (“minimizing the need for reinforcements”), highly validated MVA security, minimum cooling requirements and economical manufacturing.
GeoVax’s current development programs are focused on preventive vaccines against COVID-19, Zika virus, hemorrhagic fever virus (Ebola, Lassa, Marburg and Sudan), HIV and malaria, as well as therapeutic vaccines against multiple cancers. The company has successfully completed six clinical trials in HIV-related humans, having designed a candidate HIV preventive vaccine to fight the HIV subtype prevalent in the geographic markets of the Americas, Western Europe, Japan and Australia. Human clinical trials for this program are administered by the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) with support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The GeoVax HIV vaccine is also part of two separate collaborative efforts to apply its innovative approach towards a functional cure for HIV, addressing those already infected with HIV.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements related to GeoVax’s business. The words “believe”, “can”, “estimate”, “continue”, “anticipate”, “intend”, “should”, “plan”, “could”, “aim”, “potential”, “is likely, “” Will, “” expects “and similar expressions, as they relate to us, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. We base these forward-looking statements largely on our current plans and expectations about our product development, future events and trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, operating results, business strategy and financial needs.The actual results may differ materially from those included in these statements due to a variety of factors, including whether: GeoVax can develop and manufacture your vaccines with the desired characteristics in time Skillful, GeoVax vaccines will be safe for human use, GeoVax vaccines will effectively prevent targeted infections in humans, GeoVax vaccines will receive necessary regulatory approvals arias to be licensed and marketed, GeoVax raises the capital necessary to complete the development of the vaccine, there is development of competitive products that may be more effective or easier to use than GeoVax products, GeoVax will be able to enter into agreements for favorable manufacturing and distribution, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continues, and other factors, over which GeoVax has no control.
More information about our risk factors is contained in our most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q, which we file with the SEC. Any forward-looking statement made by us in this document speaks only as of the date it is made. Factors or events that can cause our actual results to differ may arise from time to time, and it is not possible to predict all of them. We assume no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as required by law.
GeoVax Labs, Inc.
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