GeoVax Labs Inc. Awarded NIH Grant For HIV Vaccine Program

ATLANTA, GA--(Marketwired - June 29, 2016) - GeoVax Labs, Inc. (OTCQB: GOVX), a biotechnology company specializing in the development of human vaccines, announced today it has received a Notice of Award from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grant in support of its clade C HIV vaccine development program for Africa. The grant award of $294,038 is for the second year of a two-year project period which began July 1, 2015, with a two-year project budget of $593,623.

The grant, entitled “Directed Lineage Immunizations for Eliciting Broadly Neutralizing Antibody,” is supporting the preclinical testing in non-human primates of a vaccine designed for the clade C subtype of HIV prevalent in Sub-Saharan Africa. This project is using GeoVax’s Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA) Virus-Like Particle (VLP) vaccine technology, and builds on the GeoVax clade B HIV vaccine, GOVX-B11, which is designed for the epidemic in the Americas and Western Europe. GOVX-B11 has shown outstanding safety and reproducible immunogenicity in clinical trials involving 500 people in North and South America and the Company anticipates that the clade C vaccine will show similar promise. The grant was awarded to Dr. Arban Domi, GeoVax’s Director of Vector Development, who continues to oversee its implementation.

Robert McNally, Ph.D., GeoVax’s President and CEO, commented, “As our clade B HIV vaccine for North America and Western Europe continues progressing through human clinical trials sponsored by the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), we are also pleased to have NIH/NIAID’s support to advance the version of our vaccine for the clade C HIV subtype. We are confident that the animal trials funded by this grant will further demonstrate the promise of our MVA-VLP vaccine to address the HIV pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa where two-thirds, or 23 million, of the world’s HIV cases reside.”

About GeoVax
GeoVax Labs, Inc., is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing human vaccines against infectious diseases using its MVA-VLP vaccine platform. The Company’s development programs are focused on vaccines against Zika Virus, HIV, and hemorrhagic fever viruses (Ebola, Sudan, Marburg, Lassa). GeoVax also recently began programs to evaluate the use of its MVA-VLP platform in cancer immunotherapy and for therapeutic use in chronic Hepatitis B infections. GeoVax’s vaccine platform supports in vivo production of non-infectious VLPs from the cells of the very person receiving the vaccine. The production of VLPs in the person being vaccinated mimics a natural infection. This stimulates the humoral and cellular arms of the immune system to recognize, prevent, and control the target infection. For more information, visit www.geovax.com.

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.