ATLANTA, GA, April 19, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GeoVax Labs, Inc. (OTCQB: GOVX), a biotechnology company developing human vaccines, announced today that its Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Farshad Guirakhoo, will be an invited speaker at the 2018 Annual Conference on Vaccinology Research, sponsored by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, being held in Bethesda, MD on April 23-25. Dr. Guirakhoo will deliver his talk entitled “Development of Single-Dose Vaccines for Ebola, Lassa Fever, and Zika Using a Novel MVA Vector Platform Technology” on April 24.
Dr. Guirakhoo will present data showing single dose efficacy of GeoVax’s Ebola, Lassa and Zika vaccines against lethal challenges in appropriate animal models. During his talk, Dr. Guirakhoo will also discuss the broad utility of the Company’s MVA-VLP platform for generating a pipeline of vaccines which includes malaria, and various therapeutic approaches for chronic infectious diseases and cancer. GeoVax’s vaccine platform, which has previously been shown to elicit both durable antibody and T cell responses against HIV in several clinical trials, is now ready to enter human clinical trials for multiple emerging infectious diseases.
GeoVax’s MVA-VLP platform technology is built upon the latest generation Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA) vector system which is optimized for balanced and stable expression of transgenes and vaccine inserts during manufacture. 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, MVA vaccines elicit protective T cell as well as antibody responses in animals and humans. The MVA platform can be combined with the potent immunogenicity of non-infectious virus-like particles (VLPs) or be used to express proteins in their native multimeric conformations, enabling vaccines that induce full protection after a single dose.
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 HIV, Zika, hemorrhagic fever viruses (Ebola, Sudan, Marburg, Lassa) and malaria. GeoVax also is evaluating 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 virus-like particles (VLPs) from the cells of the very person receiving the vaccine. 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. 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.