Unfortunately an estimated 40 million people are infected with the HIV virus, 6 million are infected yearly, 22 million people have died of AIDS, and 68 million are projected to die by 2020. AIDS is considered the most lethal infectious disease in the world and is growing rapidly. In order to help fight and combat this deadly disease, estimated vaccine sales have exceeded $4 billion per year for a safe and effective vaccine designed to prevent clinical signs of AIDS. At present there is no cure for the virus but many companies such as GeoVax Labs is working hard to come up with solutions.
GeoVax Labs, Inc., a biotechnology company, engages in the development and testing of human vaccines for diseases caused by the human immunodeficiency virus-AIDS and other infectious agents. Their goals include developing AIDS vaccines for the global markets, manufacturing and testing these vaccines under FDA guidelines, and obtaining regulatory approval of these vaccines in the USA and specified international markets.
The company has been named a “2008 Deal of the Year” award winner by Georgia Bio. Georgia Bio recognized GeoVax for receiving a $15 million IPCAVD (Integrated Preclinical/Clinical AIDS VACCINE Development grant) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in October 2007. The award will be presented at Georgia Bio’s annual awards dinner on January 24, 2008.
GeoVax has also retained Financial Relations Board (FRB), as its Investor and Public Relations agency of record. FRB’s task will be to raise awareness of the significant differences between other vaccine developers and GeoVax, which is currently on their 5th successful human trial.
The management team at GeoVax includes co-founder Donald Hildebrand who has more than 30 years of successful experience managing biotechnology and biopharmaceutical companies, entrepreneur Andrew J. Kandalepas who has extensive executive management experience that spans more than 30 years and Mark W. Reynolds an experienced financial manager and business advisor with an in depth knowledge of SEC reporting and compliance.
While GeoVax Labs has completed successful trials in the past, the company is faced with a vast number of competitors in the biopharmaceutical industry who are also pursuing AIDS vaccine research and development, including Merck (NYSE:MRK), Wyeth (NYSE:WYE), Glaxo-Smith Kline (NYSE:GSK) as well as prominent universities like Oxford University, University of North Carolina and Yale University Institute for Human Virology.
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