GeoVax Announces Start of 2 New HIV/AIDS Vaccine Human Trials

[J220]

Speaking of the promising Geovax vaccine, the company behind it put out the following press release today. Everything is moving ahead perfectly, even ahead of schedule! Although the main focus for this vaccine is preventive, the company is concurrently developing with therapeutic purposes in mind. The original link is: http://www.geovax.com/newsroom/press_release_new_trials_jul07.pdf . Great things are on the way, people! J.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

17 July 2007

GeoVax Announces Start of 2 New HIV/AIDS Vaccine Human Trials

ATLANTA, Ga., 17 July 2007 – GeoVax Labs, Inc. (OTC BB: GOVX), an Atlanta-based biotechnology company, announced an early start of 2 new AIDS vaccine clinical (human) trials. These FDA compliant trials were previously scheduled to start later in 2007 and are the 3rd and 4th in a 4 clinical trial series intended to evaluate both human safety and immune responses to GeoVax’s HIV/AIDS vaccines.

GeoVax’s vaccines are designed to prevent Acquired Immunodeficiency Disease (“AIDS”) in humans caused by the virus known as HIV-1 (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), by vaccinating individuals with its DNA and MVA vaccines prior to infection with the virus.

Starting April 2006, the 1st of these 4 human trials evaluated a low dose (1/10th of the vaccine dose) vaccination program. Preliminary results from this blinded trial demonstrated excellent vaccine safety and positive anti-HIV-1 immune responses to the vaccine in 9 of 11 participants where 9 people received GeoVax HIV/AIDS vaccines and 2 received placebos. All trial participants were normal healthy individuals. Final results will be compiled for later public release.

The 2nd of 4 human trials, initiated September 2006, was designed to evaluate results from full dose administration of GeoVax HIV/AIDS vaccines. Recent data indicates excellent safety in this full dose trial. Additional results from ancillary testing conducted at Emory University by Dr. Harriet Robinson demonstrated positive anti-HIV-1 immune responses in the majority of vaccine recipients. Official immune response data will be available later this year.

Excellent results from the 1st and 2nd trial of this 4 trial series have allowed the accelerated start of human trials #3 and #4. These trials began more than a month earlier than originally anticipated.

Due to exceptionally good results, GeoVax’s scientific team believes its vaccine may perform equally as well in trial #3 which administers fewer vaccine doses and trial #4 which utilizes only GeoVax’s MVA vaccine. “Success in these trials could lead to a simpler vaccine regime making it easier to vaccinate people,” stated Dr. Harriet Robinson, PhD., GeoVax’s Co-founder and Scientific Advisory Board Chairperson.

Don Hildebrand, GeoVax CEO/President/Co-founder, commented, “We are pleased with the results obtained to date from our ongoing full dose vaccine human trial. The excellent vaccine safety profile demonstrated was key to accelerating the start date of these new human trials. Equally important are the positive immune responses observed in people receiving only 1/10th of a dose of our vaccines. This is very encouraging news".

[Jake72]

Great, J220!  Thanks for posting this! 

Just as a reference, here was a 'mainstream press' piece on the vaccine from April, and it does make mention of the therapeutic possibilities:

http://www.11alive.com/news/article_news.aspx?storyid=93439

[jack]

I hope this isnt some kind of scam. If you check the stock of this company its 27cents a share. Not good. Apparently not many share their  enthusiasm.

[JamieD]

Yeah, studies that have 11 people in them can look very promising. It's when you get to phase 2 and 3 clinical trials that things go down hill from there.

I hate how the media tries to turn phase 1 clinical trials into the next biggest thing since sliced bread. They did that with Inderal and PTSD. The study they were touting as the end of bad memories, was a phase 1 clinical trial involving less then 100 people. Then they reported on what the Bush Administration had to say and blah blah blah and it was just ridiculous all over a phase 1 clinical trial.
It's also what I hate about "alternative" medicine. Most alternative medicine quacks, like Dr. Mercola, take the smallest of clinical trials or in vitro studies and hail them as a miracle from above, and this particular thing will cure every single disease known to man.

[J220]

I hope this isnt some kind of scam. If you check the stock of this company its 27cents a share. Not good. Apparently not many share their  enthusiasm.

I agree the stock is close to flatlining, but I don't think it means it's a scam. After all, this company is affiliated to Emory University, and the vaccine research was developed in collaboration with the NIH. Below is a summary of the company from my online trading account:

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GeoVax Labs, Inc. (GeoVax), formerly Dauphin Technology, Inc. (Dauphin), is a clinical stage biotechnology company engaged in research and development activities to develop, license and commercialize the manufacture and sale of human vaccines for diseases caused by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and other infectious agents. The Company has licensed from Emory University certain acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) vaccine technology, which was developed in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. On September 28, 2006, Dauphin completed a merger (the Merger) with GeoVax, Inc. Pursuant to the agreement and plan of merger, GeoVax, Inc. merged with and into GeoVax Acquisition Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Dauphin. In connection with the Merger, Dauphin changed its name to GeoVax Labs, Inc.

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Now, as far as where they stand on the research, yes it could go either way. But what they are sharing so far seems encouraging. It doesn't hurt to hope, and keep an eye on this vaccine. J.

[messer]

And now, a GeoVax therapeutic trial for 2008.      Excitement anyone?      GeoVax is solid.    They just earned an investment of 7.5 million dollars from a private investment firm.     Thats in addition to 9m already raised by private investors.       Anyone know, based on the GeoVax vaccine formulation, with antibodies and t-cells being produced by the body, would the vaccine go after the little nasties hiding out in the reservoirs?    What would that mean?

[Jake72]

Here's a link discussing what Messer was talking about:

http://www.geovax.com/newsroom/press_release_funding_jul07.pdf