GeoVax Awarded $1.4M NIH Grant

ATLANTA, GA--(Marketwired - Apr 14, 2016) -  GeoVax Labs, Inc. (OTCQB: GOVX), a biotechnology company developing innovative human vaccines, announced today it has received a Notice of Award from the U.S. National Institutes of Health for a Phase II Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grant in support of its clade B HIV vaccine development program for the Americas. The grant award of $740,456 will fund the first year of a two-year project period with a total budget of $1,398,615. The grant, entitled "Enhancing Protective Antibody Responses for a DNA/MVA HIV Vaccine", will support preclinical studies testing the ability of a bivalent (two component) protein boost to enhance the efficacy of the GeoVax Clade B HIV vaccine (GOVX-B11).

GOVX-B11 is a DNA/MVA vaccine that expresses non-infectious virus-like particles (VLPs). Clinical trials for GOVX-B11 have been conducted by the NIH-supported HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) with funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID). The HVTN has tested various doses and combinations of the DNA and MVA vaccines in 500 humans with very encouraging results and plans to test a protein boost in combination with GOVX-B11 in humans. The preclinical study funded by this grant will evaluate the potential of a protein boost to increase vaccine efficacy in non-human primates.

Harriet L. Robinson, Chief Scientific Officer at GeoVax, commented, "The two proteins chosen for the boost complement each other for their ability to enhance immune responses to pre-binding as well as post-binding targets on the HIV envelope protein. Both proteins originate from Clade B, the HIV strain endemic in the Americas and the developed world. The Clade B epidemic continues to be a major public health problem in the United States, with rates of infection in youth increasing at 10.5% per year. Simian prototypes of our current GOVX-B11 vaccine provide good reductions in per-exposure risk of infection. The protein boost is being evaluated to determine whether it can further increase this level of protection."

About GeoVax

GeoVax Labs, Inc., is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing human vaccines against infectious diseases using its Modified Vaccinia Virus Ankara -Virus-Like Particle (MVA-VLP) vaccine platform. The Company's most advanced development programs are focused on vaccines against HIV and hemorrhagic fever viruses (Ebola, Marburg, Lassa). GeoVax also recently began programs to develop a vaccine against Zika virus, and to evaluate the use of its MVA-VLP platform in cancer immunotherapy. 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 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 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.