NIAID awards grant to GeoVax Labs, Inc. to support novel Zika virus vaccine development program

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) recently announced a grant of $600,000 to GeoVax Labs, Inc. to support its novel Zika virus (ZIKV) vaccine development program.

The company is in the process of developing two novel Zika virus vaccine candidates, one that express the ZIKV NS1 protein, which was designated as GEO-ZM02, and another that expresses the ZIKV Envelope protein.

“The studies funded by this grant will build upon previous work that demonstrates the protective efficacy of recombinant vaccines using GeoVax’s MVA live viral vector,” GeoVax’s Chief Scientific Officer Farshad Guirakhoo said. “We are particularly excited about GEO-ZM02, which recently demonstrated 100% single-dose protection in normal mice against a lethal dose of ZIKV delivered by intracerebral inoculation.”

NIAID’s grant, titled Advanced Preclinical Testing of a Novel Recombinant Vaccine Against ZIka Virus, will assist in preclinical testing of both vaccine candidates in non-human primates prior to the initiation of a Phase 1 clinical study involving humans. Additionally, the study will seek to evaluate the immunogenicity and protective efficacy of both candidates in non-human primates.

“GEO-ZM02 not only has the potential of a single-dose vaccine, which is practical to combat epidemics in resource-strained countries, but also does not bear the risk of enhancing other flavivirus infections, such as Dengue and West Nile viruses, in vaccinated subjects,” Guirakhoo said.