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GeoVax Announces Expansion of Next-Generation COVID-19 Vaccine Rights to Include Omicron Variants and Use Against Orthopoxviruses
Expanded Rights Include Development of GEO-CM04S1 Against Mpox (Monkeypox) and Smallpox ATLANTA, GA, April 17, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NewMediaWire --
About this update from Geovax Labs, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"Expanded Rights Include Development of GEO-CM04S1 Against Mpox (Monkeypox) and Smallpox ATLANTA, GA, April 17, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NewMediaWire -- GeoVax Labs, Inc. (Nasdaq: GOVX), a biotechnology company developing immunotherapies and vaccines against cancers and infectious diseases, today announced the expansion of its rights under its exclusive license agreement with City of Hope (COH), a world-renowned cancer research and treatment organization, to include development and commercialization rights against orthopoxviruses in addition to SARS-CoV-2. The original license agreement with COH provides GeoVax exclusive worldwide rights to key patents, including the use of COH’s proprietary synthetic MVA (sMVA) process, for developing COVID-19 vaccines, including GEO-CM04S1 (CM04S1), a multi-antigenic SARS-CoV-2 investigational vaccine expressing the spike and nucleocapsid antigens of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. CM04S1 is currently being studied in two ongoing Phase 2 clinical trials. The amendment to the license announced today grants GeoVax an expanded field of use to develop vaccine products, such as CM04S1, which target the prevention, reduction, amelioration or treatment of COVID-19 to also include targeting the prevention, reduction, amelioration or treatment of diseases caused by a virus within the orthopoxvirus genus. Orthopoxviruses include Mpox (monkeypox), smallpox, and other viruses that cause disease in humans. Potential Benefit of the Additional Indications Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA) is the vaccine currently used and stockpiled in the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile for immunization against the Mpox and smallpox viruses. GeoVax previously demonstrated that an experimental HIV vaccine, utilizing MVA as the vaccine vector, protected non-human primates challenged with a lethal dose of the Mpox virus (publication accessible here). Further, in August 2022, COH published results demonstrating that both their proprietary sMVA (synthetic MVA) and CM04S1 (referred to as “COH04S1” in the publication, accessible here) elicited robust orthopoxvirus-specific binding and neutralizing antibody responses. The authors conclude that CM04S1 and sMVA represent unique vaccine candidates to control the unforeseen global Mpox outbreak. CM04S1, which can induce strong antibody and T cell responses against the variants of the SARS-CoV-...