GeoVax To Develop Ebola Vaccines With CDC
By Cyndi Root
As many drug companies are in a race to the first FDA-approved treatment for Ebola, GeoVax Labs has announced its own plans to throw its hat into the ring. The company, which is working in close proximity to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, will be working to develop its own Ebola vaccine to assuage quickly spreading fears about the virus. The company announced the move in a press release, saying that it feels the work it will be doing on an Ebola vaccine will go hand in hand with its focus on HIV vaccines. Robert McNally, PhD, GeoVax’s President and CEO, said, “We continue to be actively engaged in discussions with the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) and the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) regarding the design of our next clinical study and various trial designs are being considered.”
GeoVax’s Ebola Vaccine Program
GeoVax intends to use its DNA/MVA platform technology to develop Ebola vaccines to prevent and treat lethal hemorrhagic viruses. The company will consult with experts at the CDC and use its Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) facilities for testing vaccine responses. GeoVax has two vaccines in development, GOVX-E301 and GOVX-E302, recombinant MVA (modified vaccinia Ankara) vaccines. The agents produce non-infectious virus-like particles (VLPs) that display the Ebola virus glycoprotein. GeoVax hopes to have the GOVX-E301 vaccine ready by 2016.
GOVX-E301 is a single-dose vaccine for the ZEBOV strain of Ebola, responsible for the current outbreak in West Africa. GOVX-E302 is in a two-dose regimen for the prevention of three known versions of Ebola. The vaccines are developed with GeoVax’s DNA vaccine technology, which has shown immunogenicity and safety in clinical trials for HIV. GeoVax states that its HIV vaccines show “outstanding safety” in humans, a robust immune response, and are highly durable. The company’s rMVA vector is derived from the smallpox virus. Since smallpox was eradicated in 1980, most of the population is unvaccinated and free of pre-existing immunity.
About GeoVax
GeoVax Labs has been developing HIV vaccines with support from the National Institutes of Health’s HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) and its National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) division. The company has tested its HIV vaccines in over 500 humans. In August 2014, GeoVax announced an expanded agreement with the European biotechnology company Valneva SE. The two companies have been working together since 2008, generating manufacturing processes for GeoVax vaccines using Valneva’s EB66 cell line technology. The new agreement allows GeoVax to use the EB66-derived vaccine in clinical trials and allows manufacturing by a third party GMP manufacturer.