Benzinga | Jul 7, 2021 09:01AM EDT

GeoVax Highlights Yesterday Report Co Issued Hepatitis B Vaccine Patent

GeoVax Labs, Inc. (NASDAQ:GOVX) ("GeoVax" or the "Company"), a biotechnology company developing human immunotherapies and vaccines against infectious diseases and cancer, today announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued Patent No. 11,052,148, entitled "Composition and Methods of Generating an Immune Response to Hepatitis B Virus."

The abstract contained in the Company's patent application describes the invention as follows: "The compositions and methods are described for generating an immune response to a hepatitis B virus. The compositions and methods described herein relate to a modified vaccina Ankara (MVA) vector encoding one or more viral antigens for generating a protective immune response to a hepatitis B virus, in the subject to which the vector is administered. The compositions and methods of the present invention are useful both prophylactically and therapeutically and may be used to prevent and/or treat an infection caused by hepatitis B virus."

The work supporting the patent application was performed through a collaboration between GeoVax and Georgia State University and the patent is jointly owned by the Company and the Georgia State University Research Foundation (GSURF).

David Dodd, GeoVax's Chairman & CEO, commented, "As we stated in our previous announcement regarding the allowance of this patent, there is a clear unmet medical need to treat chronic HBV infections, which affect over 250 million people worldwide. We are pleased now to have been notified of the formal patent issuance. As noted in the patent application abstract, our vaccines have potential use in both preventive and therapeutic settings. Multiple vaccines exist to protect against HBV infection, but they cannot help patients already diagnosed with the disease. Although chronic HBV can be treated with drugs, the treatments do not cure 95% of patients, only suppressing the replication of the virus, forcing those who begin such treatments to continue with them for the rest of their lives."