GeoVax to Present at the 2019 ASM Biothreats Conference

Company continues to advance novel vaccines to prevent infectious threats

ATLANTA, GA, Jan. 22, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- GeoVax Labs, Inc. GOVX, a biotechnology company developing human vaccines, announced that Senior Scientist, Mary Hauser, PhD, will deliver a presentation, entitled "Development of a Safe and Effective Single-Dose Vaccine for Emerging Infectious Diseases, Preclinical Data for Zika, Ebola and Lassa Fever as Examples," during the 2019 American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Biothreats Conference, being held January 29-31, 2019 in Arlington, Virginia.

Dr. Hauser will discuss GeoVax's "Plug and Play" vaccine platform which utilizes its recombinant Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA) vector to express foreign antigens on virus-like particles (VLPs) in the person being vaccinated. The MVA-VLP platform has several advantages including the ability to use single inoculations to achieve full protection. Single-dose protection is a favorable characteristic of a vaccine for emerging infectious disease outbreak response, given the speed of spread of pathogens and the impracticality of multi-dose regimens in the under-resourced settings where outbreaks often occur.

In studies for Ebola, Lassa and Zika, representing important human pathogens from 3 different virus families, a single dose of GeoVax's vaccine fully protected animals against a lethal challenge. These serve as examples of the broad utility of the MVA-VLP platform for many more indications. GeoVax's MVA platform which has previously shown to elicit both durable antibody and T cell responses against HIV in several clinical trials, is now ready to enter human clinical trials for multiple emerging infectious diseases.

Commenting on these GeoVax vaccine developments, David Dodd, Chairman, CEO stated, "Increasingly, the threat of infectious diseases as bioweapons present an alarming risk to societies throughout the world.  GeoVax is committed to providing safe, effective vaccines that can be used to reduce such risks.  We look forward to our vaccines continuing to progress into clinical development programs in the near future."

GeoVax's MVA-VLP platform technology is built upon a 4th generation MVA vector system that is improved for balanced and stable expression of transgenes and vaccine inserts during manufacture. It has the advantages of being a live replication-competent vector in avian cells for manufacturing, yet replication-deficient in mammalian cells for vaccination, thus inherently safe. Importantly, MVA vaccines elicit protective T cell as well as antibody responses in animals and humans. The MVA platform can be combined with the potent immunogenicity of VLPs or be used to express proteins in their native multimeric conformations enabling vaccines that induce full protection after a single dose. The safety and immunogenicity of the platform was first validated in animal and human studies using DNA and MVA-VLP-HIV vaccines and further expanded for developing vaccines against emerging pathogens, endemic diseases, chronic infections and cancer.

About the ASM Biothreats Conference

The 2019 ASM Biothreats meeting will be held January 29-31, 2019, in Arlington, Virginia at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City. High consequence pathogen research, biological threat reduction, product development and policy will be the focus of the meeting. Thought leaders in academia, industry and government will gather to present and discuss the latest developments in this emerging field. Conference registration information can be found at https://www.asm.org/Events/2019-ASM-Biothreats/Home

About GeoVax

GeoVax Labs, Inc., is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing human vaccines against infectious diseases using its patented MVA-VLP vaccine platform. GeoVax was the winner of the 2018 "Best Biotech" Vaccine Industry Excellence Awards, a finalist for the 2018 "Best Prophylactic Vaccine" Award for its Zika vaccine at the World Vaccine Congress, as well as a finalist for Pipelines of Promise at Buzz of Bio 2018. The Company's development programs are focused on vaccines against Zika, hemorrhagic fever viruses (Ebola, Sudan, Marburg and Lassa), HIV 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 and in treating Human Papillomavirus (HPV) infections. 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 https://www.geovax.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this document are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. These statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Actual results may differ materially from those included in these statements due to a variety of factors, including whether:  GeoVax can develop and manufacture its vaccines with the desired characteristics in a timely manner, GeoVax's vaccines will be safe for human use, GeoVax's vaccines will effectively prevent targeted infections in humans, GeoVax's vaccines will receive regulatory approvals necessary to be licensed and marketed, GeoVax raises required capital to complete vaccine 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. GeoVax assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements, and does not intend to do so. More information about these factors is contained in GeoVax's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including those set forth at "Risk Factors" in GeoVax's Form 10-K.

GeoVax Labs, Inc.
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