HIV/AIDS Vaccine Trial Results Support GeoVax Labs Strategy

GeoVax Labs has announced the partial success in the recently completed phase 3 trial in Thailand of a candidate HIV/AIDS vaccine owned by Sanofi-Aventis and Global Solutions for Infectious Diseases. The completed study represents the first HIV/AIDS vaccine trial to show prevention of infection.

The company said that GeoVax’s two component vaccine, a recombinant DNA and a recombinant modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA), is designed to stimulate both anti-HIV T cell and anti-HIV antibody immune responses. GeoVax’s DNA and MVA vaccines are used in a prime-boost protocol in which priming is done with the DNA and boosting with the MVA.

GeoVax is also investigating a potentially simpler regimen in which MVA is used for both priming and boosting. Both the DNA and MVA express the three major proteins of the AIDS virus: Gag, Pol, and Env, and produce non-infectious virus-like-particles. The multi-protein approach is designed to elicit a broad multi-target protective T cell response. The Env protein is designed to elicit a protective antibody response against the natural form of the virus envelope glycoprotein as well as protective T cells.

The Thai trial was conducted with a vaccine targeted for infections endemic to Thailand, the GeoVax vaccine is targeted for the ‘clade B’ type of HIV-1 prevalent in the Americas, Europe and Australia.

Robert McNally, president and CEO of GeoVax Labs, said: “The results are highly encouraging for the clinical studies of our HIV/AIDS vaccine and we congratulate the Thai ministry of Public Health for successful conduct of a groundbreaking trial that included 16,000 volunteers and was supported by multiple agencies including the US Army and the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).”