GeoVax Announces Issuance of Malaria Vaccine Patent
April 26 2022 - 9:00AM
via
NewMediaWire --
GeoVax Labs,
Inc. (Nasdaq: GOVX), a biotechnology company developing
human vaccines and immunotherapies against infectious diseases and
cancer, today announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
has issued Patent No. 11,311,612 to GeoVax, pursuant to the
Company’s patent application No. 16/648,693 titled “Compositions
and Methods for Generating an Immune Response to Treat or Prevent
Malaria.” In general, the claims granted in the patent cover
GeoVax’s modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA) vector expressing certain
antigens from the malaria parasite.
Globally, malaria causes 228 million infections
and 405,000 deaths annually. Despite decades of vaccine research,
vaccine candidates have failed to induce substantial protection
(e.g. >50%). Most of these vaccines are based on individual
proteins that induce immune responses targeting only one stage of
the malaria parasite’s life cycle. GeoVax’s MVA-VLP malaria vaccine
candidates incorporate antigens derived from multiple stages of the
parasite’s life cycle and are designed to induce an immune response
with durable functional antibodies and CD4+ and CD8+ T cell
responses, all hallmarks of an ideal vaccine-induced immune
response.
David Dodd, GeoVax President and CEO, commented,
“We remain strongly committed to advancing innovation towards
improving public health worldwide and this patent reflects a
potentially significant advance relative to malaria prevention. Our
development priorities continue to be our COVID-19 vaccine,
currently in Phase 2 clinical trials, and our cancer immunotherapy
program, with Gedeptin® as our lead product in a Phase 1/2 clinical
trial for Head and Neck cancer. However, developing vaccines
against global public health threats such as malaria, is also part
of our longer-term focus. Collaborations with government and
academic institutions, such as the NIH, USAID, and the Burnet
Institute, will continue to be components of our efforts to design,
produce and test novel vaccines against malaria. Our goals include
developing such vaccines that are affordable, highly effective,
safe, and can be distributed and administrated across various
regions of the world in a simple manner.”
About the GV-MVA-VLP™
Platform
GeoVax’s GV-MVA-VLP™ vaccine platform utilizes
modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA), a large virus capable of carrying
several vaccine antigens, that expresses proteins that assemble
into virus-like particles (VLP) immunogens in the person receiving
the vaccine. The production of VLPs in the person being vaccinated
can mimic the virus production that occurs 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.
About GeoVax
GeoVax Labs, Inc. is a clinical-stage
biotechnology company developing human vaccines and immunotherapies
against infectious diseases and cancer using novel proprietary
platforms. GeoVax’s product pipeline includes two ongoing Phase 2
clinical trials of GEO-CM04S1 (formerly COH04S1) for COVID-19 as a
universal booster vaccine to mRNA vaccines authorized by the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and as a primary vaccine for use
in immunocompromised patients. In addition to GEO-CM04S1 for
COVID-19, GeoVax is developing GEO-CM02 as a pan-coronavirus
vaccine. The Company is also conducting a Phase 1/2 clinical trial
of Gedeptin® for treatment of head and neck cancer. Gedeptin® has
been granted orphan drug status by the FDA. Additional research and
development programs include preventive vaccines against Zika
Virus, hemorrhagic fever viruses (Ebola, Sudan, Marburg, and Lassa)
and malaria, as well as immunotherapies for multiple solid tumors.
The Company’s portfolio of wholly owned, co-owned, and in-licensed
intellectual property stands at over 70 granted or pending patent
applications spread over 20 patent families.
For additional information about GeoVax,
visit our website: www.geovax.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This release contains forward-looking statements
regarding GeoVax’s business plans. The words “believe,” “look
forward to,” “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 obtain acceptable results from ongoing or future
clinical trials of its investigational products, GeoVax’s
immuno-oncology products and preventative vaccines can provoke the
desired responses, and those products or vaccines can be used
effectively, GeoVax’s viral vector technology adequately amplifies
immune responses to cancer antigens, GeoVax can develop and
manufacture its immuno-oncology products and preventative vaccines
with the desired characteristics in a timely manner, GeoVax’s
immuno-oncology products and preventative vaccines will be safe for
human use, GeoVax’s vaccines will effectively prevent targeted
infections in humans, GeoVax’s immuno-oncology products and
preventative vaccines will receive regulatory approvals necessary
to be licensed and marketed, GeoVax raises required capital to
complete 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.
Contact:GeoVax Labs,
Inc.678-384-7220investor@geovax.com
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