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GeoVax Ebola Vaccine Study Published in the Atlas of Science

GeoVax Ebola Vaccine Provides Potential for 100% Protection from Single-Dose

Atlanta, GA - (NewMediaWire) - March 19, 2019 - GeoVax Labs, Inc. (OTCQB: GOVX), a biotechnology company developing human vaccines and immunotherapies, today announced the publication of a manuscript entitled “Single Dose Protection Against Lethal Ebola Virus Challenge.”  The article is published in the open-access journal Atlas of Science and can be viewed at https://atlasofscience.org/single-dose-protection-against-lethal-ebola-virus-challenge/.

GeoVax’s Ebola vaccine (GEO-EM01) is based on the Company’s novel Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA) Virus-Like Particle (VLP) platform, which generates noninfectious VLPs in the individual being vaccinated. VLPs mimic a natural infection, triggering the body to produce a robust and durable immune response with both antibodies and T cells. The Atlas of Science article describes research showing that a single intramuscular (IM) dose of GEO-EM01 provided 100% protection in rhesus macaques challenged with a lethal dose of Ebola virus (EBOV). This is the first report that a replication-deficient MVA vector can confer full protection against a lethal EBOV challenge after a single-dose vaccination in macaques.

In this study, GEO-EM01 was administered as either a single IM inoculation (prime) or as two IM inoculations at a four-week interval (prime-boost) to groups of four rhesus macaques each. A control group received the MVA vector without Ebola virus protein inserts. Four weeks after inoculation, animals in all three groups were exposed to a lethal dose of Ebola virus. Three of the four unvaccinated animals died within 12 days, while all of the vaccinated animals survived. Remarkably, both single-dose and 2-dose regimens provided near sterile immunity since no live virus could be detected in any tissues of vaccinated monkeys whereas live Ebola virus was recovered from all tissues of the control animals (e.g. blood, urine, lymph nodes, spleen, adrenal glands, etc.). Researchers at Rocky Mountain Laboratories, part of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), collaborated in the study.  

Results of the study were originally published in the peer-reviewed open access journal Scientific Reports by Nature Research and can be viewed at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-19041-y.

Commenting on this publication, David Dodd, GeoVax CEO, stated, “This study is yet another validation of the value and capability of the GeoVax technology and expertise in developing preventive and therapeutic solutions to many unmet medical needs challenging patients and societies worldwide.  We continue to progress with our various development programs, focused on moving into additional human clinical trials, which hopefully will provide the basis for regulatory registration and commercialization of much needed medical preventions and therapeutics.”

About Atlas of Science

Atlas of Science was started by scientists to promote the dissemination of scientific research and provides the opportunity for scientists to write and publish a short and accessible layman summary of their latest research, based on peer-reviewed articles.

About GeoVax

GeoVax Labs, Inc. is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing human vaccines and immunotherapies against infectious diseases and various cancers 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 was the winner of the 2018 “Best Biotech” Vaccine Industry Excellence (VIE) Award and is a finalist in two categories for the 2019 VIE Awards, “Best New Vaccine Technology/Platform” and “Best Therapeutic Vaccine” (for its MVA-VLP-MUC1 cancer vaccine). 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 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.

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