ATLANTA, GA, June 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- GeoVax Labs, Inc. (OTCQB: GOVX), a biotechnology company developing human immunotherapies and vaccines against infectious diseases and cancer, announced today that its Chief Scientific Officer, Farshad Guirakhoo, PhD, will be a featured speaker at the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases Annual Conference on Vaccinology Research, being held virtually on June 18-19, 2020.
Dr. Guirakhoo will deliver a presentation entitled Development of Potential Single-Dose Vaccine Against COVID-19 Using GV-MVA-VLPTM Vector Platform, during which he will discuss GeoVax’s unique multi-antigens approach toward COVID-19 vaccine development, including vaccine design and preclinical testing results to date. Dr. Guirakhoo will also discuss more broadly GeoVax’s vaccine vector platform, its applicability to coronavirus, and previous results observed in other infectious disease vaccines including HIV, Zika, Ebola, Marburg and Lassa fever.
GeoVax’s Modified Vaccinia Ankara Virus-Like Particles (GV-MVA-VLPTM) platform technology is built on a proprietary MVA vector system that is optimized for high expression and stable transgenes during manufacture. Similar to its parent MVA, it has the advantages of being a live replication-competent vector in avian cells for manufacturing, yet replication-deficient in mammalian cells for vaccination, thus inherently safe. Importantly, GV-MVA-VLPTM vaccines elicit protective T cell as well as antibody responses (Th1 biased) in animals and humans. In non-clinical studies, GV-MVA-VLPTM vaccine candidates against various virus families (e.g. Ebola, Sudan, Marburg, Lassa and Zika) induced strong antibody and T cell responses and conferred full protection after single dose vaccinations against lethal challenges. Single dose protection is a favourable characteristic of preventive vaccines for emerging infectious disease outbreak response, given the speed of spread of pathogens and the impracticality of multi-dose regimens in the under-resourced settings where outbreaks often occur.
About GeoVax
GeoVax Labs, Inc. is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing human vaccines against infectious diseases and cancer using a novel proprietary vaccine platform (GV-MVA-VLPTM). On this platform, MVA, a large virus capable of carrying several vaccine antigens, expresses proteins that assemble into VLP immunogens within the person receiving the vaccine (in vivo). The production of VLPs in the person being vaccinated mimics virus production in a natural infection, stimulating both the humoral and cellular arms of the immune system to recognize, prevent, and control the target infection. The GV-MVA-VLPTM derived vaccines can elicit durable immune responses in the host similar to a live-attenuated virus, while typically providing the safety characteristics of a replication-defective vector.
GeoVax’s current development programs are focused on preventive vaccines against COVID-19, HIV, Zika, hemorrhagic fever viruses (Ebola, Sudan, Marburg, and Lassa), and malaria, as well as therapeutic vaccines against chronic Hepatitis B infections and multiple cancers. The Company has developed a preventive HIV vaccine candidate (GOVX-B11) for the clade B subtype of HIV prevalent in the Americas, Western Europe, Japan, and Australia, as well as a vaccine candidate for the clade C subtype prevalent in Africa and India. GOVX-B11 is scheduled for inclusion in an upcoming human clinical trial managed by the HVTN with the support of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). GeoVax’s clade B HIV vaccine is also part of collaborative efforts to develop an immunotherapy as a functional cure for HIV.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this document are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. These statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Actual results may differ materially from those included in these statements due to a variety of factors, including whether: GeoVax can develop and manufacture its vaccines with the desired characteristics in a timely manner, GeoVax's vaccines will be safe for human use, GeoVax's vaccines will effectively prevent targeted infections in humans, GeoVax’s vaccines will receive regulatory approvals necessary to be licensed and marketed, GeoVax raises required capital to complete vaccine development, there is development of competitive products that may be more effective or easier to use than GeoVax's products, GeoVax will be able to enter into favorable manufacturing and distribution agreements, and other factors, over which GeoVax has no control. GeoVax assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements and does not intend to do so. More information about these factors is contained in GeoVax's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including those set forth at "Risk Factors" in GeoVax's Form 10-K.
Contact:
GeoVax Labs, Inc.
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