There are over 33 million people worldwide affected by HIV, and treatment averages around $500,000 over the lifetime of a patient in the developed world.
GeoVax, a biotechnology company based in Georgia, is not content to leave people vulnerable to infection. They are focused on developing a human vaccine for HIV/AIDS, and their goals are ambitious. First, they want to create a vaccine to prevent uninfected people from contracting the virus should they be exposed. Secondly, they are developing a vaccine to reduce the need for drugs in those people already living with HIV.
“What we’re developing here is a vaccine for a global scourge,” says Dr. Robert McNally, the President and CEO of GeoVax. “I think the general public in America tends to think that it’s not an issue anymore. But for the last 15 years or so, the incidence of HIV has remained constant in the U.S. It’s still about 55-60,000 new cases each year,” he cites. “That’s why we’re out there working on a vaccine.”
From the beginning, McNally was enthusiastic about the work being done at GeoVax. “I was really intrigued by the data. In 2007, I was asked to be on the GeoVax board, and a year later I was asked to be CEO.
“The work of GeoVax has a great pedigree,” he says. According to the company’s website, “GeoVax’s AIDS vaccines were initially developed at Emory University by Dr. Harriet Robinson, currently GeoVax’s Chief Scientific Officer, in collaboration with researchers at the NIH and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. The two component vaccines are commonly referred to as recombinant DNA and MVA vaccines.
“Our focus is on developing AIDS vaccines comprising the major HIV-1 subtypes: A, B and C. These vaccines can be used alone or in combination depending on a local infection. Our first priority is subtype B, which is most common in North America, western South America, the European Union, Japan and Australia,” the website states.
McNally explains, “What I think really speaks highly for GeoVax is that during the past 20 years, the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN), through NIH funding, has sponsored over 80 Phase 1 trials for the initial evaluation of safety and immunogenicity of HIV/AIDS vaccines.” Of those 80, he is proud to report that “GeoVax’s vaccine is only the fifth to merit moving to an HVTN Phase 2 trial as a preventative vaccine. We should have a good idea of the results after another 10 to 12 months.”
As for a therapeutic treatment for those with HIV, McNally is happy about the potential he’s seen so far. “This is really exciting. We will be able to watch how the vaccine actually controls the virus. An individual might [actually] be able to wean themselves off their oral medications. Early next year, we will see if we can control the virus in individuals who are infected.”
McNally is also excited about an additive in the vaccine that has shown a 70 percent efficacy rate in protecting non-human primates. “When administered in series, our AIDS vaccines induce strong cellular and humoral immunity in non-human primates against multiple HIV-1 proteins. This suggests that GeoVax’s vaccines will provide protection against the development of AIDS in HIV-1 virus infected people,” the GeoVax website reports.
According to McNally, the results of that clinical testing with non-human primates point the way to further development. “Giving 70 percent protection is a fantastic number,” he says. “The second big thrust for the company for 2011 is to have that version of the vaccine into production and start a Phase 1 trial. That is big news for us.”
Currently, HIV-positive individuals do have access to medication that eases symptoms and delays the onset of AIDS, but McNally knows that those treatments are far from perfect. “What the public doesn’t realize is that, even though these medications are quite effective, they can also have a lot of side effects and they are also quite expensive. It costs $18,000 per year for an individual to fight the disease. A vaccination shot is a much more cost-effective way of combating HIV,” he says.
Dr. Robert McNally graduated with a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. He has over 28 years of experience in academic and corporate clinical investigations, business management, research and regulatory affairs. He spent 14 years working with CryoLife, the first biomedical company to commercialize the low-temperature preservation of human implantable tissues for complex cardiac and vascular reconstruction.
During his tenure, the organization increased its revenue to $50 million, became a public company on the NYSE, and received world recognition as a leader in transplant technology.
At GeoVax, funding is an important part of McNally’s job. “We live principally off of grants that come from the NIH. They’ve been very generous to us. But we still have to raise additional money to speed the trials along,” he says.
Creating vaccines presents unique difficulties. “Working in vaccines is probably more challenging than other treatments. A lot of the time we don’t understand the immune system and the way it works,” McNally says. “So it’s difficult to design vaccines that will be effective.” He notes that people have been trying to find vaccines ever since HIV was discovered, and he is confident that GeoVax’s vaccine will be effective.
“Since 2001, the company has been quietly going about its business running clinical trials,” said McNally. However, GeoVax recently attracted the attention of rock-and-roll superstar Chuck Panozzo, bass player for the band Styx. The music veteran—he’s behind hits like “Mr. Roboto” and “Come Sail Away”—still tours regularly, but now Panozzo moonlights as a GeoVax spokesperson. Panozzo, openly gay and HIV-positive, wants to raise awareness about the quest to find a vaccine. The partnership crystallized after Panozzo met GeoVax’s lead scientist, Dr. Harriet Robinson, at an AIDS awareness campaign event in Florida.
McNally is excited about Geovax’s promising outlook for 2011. And he is optimistic that there will be continuing interest in his efforts, saying, “I think there is always going to be support to continue to find an answer to this problem.”
www.geovax.com
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