via NewMediaWire --
GeoVax Labs,
Inc. (NasdaqCM: GOVX) (“GeoVax” or the “Company”), a
biotechnology company developing human immunotherapies and vaccines
against infectious diseases and cancer, today announced that the
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued a Notice of Allowance
for Patent Application No. 16/305,305 entitled “Composition and
Methods of Generating an Immune Response to Hepatitis B Virus.”
The work supporting the patent application was performed through
a collaboration between GeoVax and Georgia State University and the
patent is jointly owned by the Company and the Georgia State
University Research Foundation (GSURF).
David Dodd, GeoVax’s Chairman & CEO, commented, “There is a
clear, critical unmet medical need to treat chronic HBV infections,
which affects over 250 million people worldwide. For many infected
people, Hepatitis B has become a long-term, chronic infection that
can lead to serious, or even life-threatening health issues like
cirrhosis or liver cancer. Multiple vaccines exist to protect
against HBV infection, but they cannot help patients already
diagnosed with the disease. Although chronic HBV can be treated
with drugs, the treatments do not cure 95% of patients, only
suppressing the replication of the virus, forcing those who begin
such treatments to continue with them for the rest of their
lives.
“While our corporate focus and development priorities continue
to be our COVID-19 vaccine and cancer immunotherapy programs,
developing a treatment for chronic Hepatitis B infections is also
of interest and under consideration as part of our longer-term
focus. This patent allowance adds to our growing portfolio of
wholly owned, co-owned, and in-licensed intellectual property,
which now stands at over 70 granted or pending patent applications
spread over 20 patent families,” concluded Mr. Dodd.
“This project is a good example of how the combined expertise
and talent of academic researchers and industry partners can solve
problems, innovate, and create value,” added Clifford Michaels,
Ph.D., Director of Georgia State University’s Office of Technology
Transfer and Commercialization. “We were excited to partner with
GeoVax on this project and are looking forward to seeing this
technology continue to advance.”
About GeoVax
GeoVax Labs, Inc. is a clinical-stage biotechnology company
developing human vaccines against infectious diseases and cancer
using a novel patented Modified Vaccinia Ankara-Virus Like Particle
(MVA-VLP) based vaccine platform. On this platform, MVA, a large
virus capable of carrying several vaccine antigens, expresses
proteins that assemble into VLP immunogens in the person receiving
the vaccine. The production of VLPs in the person being vaccinated
can mimic 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 MVA-VLP derived
vaccines can elicit durable immune responses in the host similar to
a live-attenuated virus, while providing the safety characteristics
of a replication-defective vector.
GeoVax’s current development programs are focused on preventive
vaccines against COVID-19, HIV, Zika Virus, hemorrhagic fever
viruses (Ebola, Sudan, Marburg, and Lassa), and malaria, as well as
therapeutic vaccines against multiple cancers. The Company has
designed a preventive HIV vaccine candidate to fight against the
subtype of HIV prevalent in the commercial markets of the Americas,
Western Europe, Japan, and Australia; human clinical trials for
this program are managed by the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN)
with the support of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
GeoVax’s HIV vaccine is also part of two separate collaborative
efforts to apply its innovative gene therapy approach toward a
functional cure for HIV.
About Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA)
The creation of our MVA viral vectors described in our patent
filings was made possible through contribution of materials and
methods developed in the laboratory of Dr. Bernard Moss of the
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID),
Laboratory of Viral Diseases (LVD).
Forward-Looking Statements
This release and the related conference call contain
forward-looking statements regarding GeoVax’s business plans and
financial results. The words “believe,” “may,” “estimate,”
“continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “should,” “plan,” “could,”
“target,” “potential,” “is likely,” “will,” “expect” and similar
expressions, as they relate to us, are intended to identify
forward-looking statements. We have based these forward-looking
statements largely on our current expectations and projections
about future events and financial trends that we believe may affect
our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy
and financial needs. Actual results may differ materially from
those included in these statements due to a variety of factors,
including whether: GeoVax is able to realize potential benefits
from the patent protection it has received, GeoVax’s vaccines can
provoke the desired immune responses, and those vaccines can be
used effectively as a primary or booster to other vaccines,
GeoVax’s viral vector technology adequately amplifies immune
responses to cancer antigens, 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.
Further information on our risk factors is contained in our
registration statement on Form S-1 and the periodic reports on Form
10-Q and Form 10-K that we have filed and will file with the SEC.
Any forward-looking statement made by us herein speaks only as of
the date on which it is made. Factors or events that could cause
our actual results to differ may emerge from time to time, and it
is not possible for us to predict all of them. We undertake no
obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement,
whether as a result of new information, future developments or
otherwise, except as may be required by
law.
GeoVax Labs, Inc. 6783847220 investor@geovax.com
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