GeoVax Labs Inc. Reports Data on Prototype Adjuvant
ATLANTA, Feb. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- GeoVax Labs, Inc. (the "Company"), an Atlanta-based, biopharmaceutical company developing vaccines for diseases caused by HIV-1 (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), today announced that it presented the results of a preclinical study on a prototype HIV/AIDS vaccine at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in San Francisco.
Adjuvants are agents that can increase the potency and effectiveness of a vaccine. GeoVax's work on adjuvants started in 2007. At that time, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) granted the company $15 million over five years to fund the search for any benefit derived from the use of adjuvants. Results using GM-CSF showed protection from infection from simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV-monkey version of the HIV virus) in 70% of the seven exposed animals after 12 weekly exposures to the SIV virus.
The GM-CSF results were produced in a study using repeated rectal challenges with a dose of SIV that is 40 to 400 times the estimated typical dose of HIV associated with infections in humans. Following 12 weekly infection attempts, all nine of the unvaccinated animals became infected, whereas only two of the seven animals vaccinated with the adjuvant-supplemented vaccine became infected.
GeoVax's mission is to develop both a preventative and therapeutic vaccine to combat HIV/AIDS. Robert McNally, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer, explained, "We are currently in a Phase 2a clinical trial with a vaccine that proved safe and immunogenic in Phase 1 testing. We are and continue to be optimistic about this product. The results from the adjuvant-supplemented product test suggest that we may have an effective alternative product should our non-adjuvanted vaccine prove suboptimal in expanded human clinical trials. This vaccine is being added to the patent portfolio of the company."
About CROI
The 17th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2010) is a scientifically focused meeting of the world's leading researchers working to understand, prevent, and treat HIV/AIDS and its complications.
CROI 2010 will present and debate controversial scientific issues, several hundred original oral abstract and poster presentations of new data, and late breakers that will consist of important preliminary research findings.
GeoVax's unique two component vaccine, a recombinant DNA and a recombinant modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA), is designed to stimulate both anti-HIV T cell and anti-HIV antibody immune responses. Stimulation of both T cells and antibodies differentiates the GeoVax vaccine from many other vaccine candidates. GeoVax's DNA and MVA vaccines are used in a prime-boost protocol in which priming is done with the DNA and boosting with the MVA. Both the DNA and MVA express the three major proteins of the AIDS virus: Gag, Pol, and Env, and produce non-infectious virus-like-particles. These particles contain proteins that mimic more than half of the components of the AIDS virus, but cannot cause AIDS. This multi-protein approach is designed to elicit a broad multi-target protective T cell response. The Env protein is designed to elicit a protective antibody response against the natural form of the virus envelope glycoprotein as well as protective T cells.
AIDS is an epidemic that can affect anyone, regardless of race, gender, age or sexual orientation. 33 million people are currently infected globally and it is estimated that there will be 2.5 million new infections this year. Since the beginning of the epidemic, over a million people in the U.S. have contracted the virus. Every 9 1/2 minutes, someone in the U.S. is infected with AIDS. Globally, HIV is the top killer among women of reproductive age.
About GeoVax Labs, Inc.
GeoVax's core AIDS vaccine technologies were developed by Dr. Harriet Robinson, Chief Scientific Officer, through a collaboration of colleagues at Emory University's Vaccine Center, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and GeoVax.
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GeoVax Labs, Inc.