GeoVax’s AIDS vaccine heads for Phase II

Feb. 29, 2008 - PRLog -- US biotechnology company GeoVax Labs’ (Atlanta, Georgia) HIV/AIDS vaccine is expected to enter Phase IIa human trials in mid-2008.  The company says its product is only the fifth to be selected by the US National Institutes of Health HIV Vaccine Trials Network to proceed to this phase.  In contrast, it was HVTN’s 65th vaccine evaluated in Phase I tests.

The trial, covered by protocol HVTN 205, will involve up to 500 participants at several locations in the US.  

GeoVax is developing two genetically engineered HIV/AIDS vaccines, both of which express over 50% of the AIDS virus components in recipients.  Its DNA vaccine primes and its MVA vaccine boosts T-cell and antibody immune response to multiple HIV-1 proteins.  The vaccines were initially developed at Emory University in collaboration with researchers at the NIAID (NIH), and the Centers for Disease Control.  

When administered in series, in preclinical tests, the vaccines protected 22 of 23 (96%) non-human primates against AIDS for 3½ years.  The company has completed two Phase I human trials of a prototype DNA with positive results.  It has three Phase Ia/Ib studies combining DNA with MVA underway to test different regimens, one of which began in 2006, and the other two in June 2007. Article submitted by www.jobs4dd.com,  a specialist online recruitment service for the clinical trial and drug development sectors.

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