Welcome back. We have an update from GeoVax Labs. Trades on the NASDAQ under GeoVax. It's a clinical-stage biotech company developing novel vaccines for many of the world's most threatening infectious diseases and therapies for solid tumor cancers. So happy to welcome back Chairman, President, and CEO David A. Dodd. David, welcome back.
Thank you, Anna. Today what I'd really like to focus on is a very important issue in public health worldwide, and that is addressing the unmet needs of immunocompromised patients. This is a major issue globally and especially related to COVID-19. It's a critically important issue because most of us are generally healthy and we feel like, the pandemic's passed us. We don't have to think about it. You're going to see in a minute that there are significant numbers worldwide at major risk because the current vaccines are inadequate. That's what I'd like to talk to people about and where GeoVax Labs is coming in. First of all, the current authorized or the developed vaccines, the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer, from Moderna, and even the Novavax vaccine that is approved now, are first-generation COVID-19 vaccines.
The challenge with those vaccines, in particular populations that I'm going to focus on today, is that they are limited breadth of protection. In other words, every time there's a new variant or a new strain that comes out, they have to be reconfigured. Because of that, they don't last long. We were originally told they were 94-95% effective. If you get the vaccine, you won't get COVID. We found out that really was not the case. In fact, they only last about three to six months, and they had to continuously be reconfigured. Most importantly, people who have medical conditions that result in their bodies not being as responsive from an immune response as they should be, they simply don't work. A multi-antigen, as they refer to it, or let's call it a next-generation vaccine, is one that would clearly address those limitations.
Most of all, they would address the limitation and provide adequate and appropriate protection, reducing the risk of severe infection, hospitalization, and the risk of death for people who have certain medical conditions. Let's talk about those. People with various blood cancers, people who may have lupus, multiple sclerosis, could be HIV, could be renal disease, kidney disease, could be diabetic patients. There's a host of medical conditions. In fact, they represent over 40 million people in the United States alone and over 400 million worldwide who have a medical condition that results in basically depleting or destroying their antibody immune system's level or ability to respond adequately and provide protection. That means these people, over 40 million individuals in the U.S. alone, remain at very high risk from COVID-19 of contracting either a severe infection, being hospitalized, or even the risk of death. This is unacceptable.
It's a critical medical need worldwide. Fortunately, there is a solution, and that is the vaccine that GeoVax has, which is known as GEO-CM04S1. We have two clinical trials actively underway right now among these populations. One are blood cancer patients who are receiving stem cell transplantation. These are one of the highest risk groups for being at risk of severe infection, et cetera. It's a very important area here. These individuals do not respond to mRNA vaccines or to the Novavax vaccine. In another blood cancer population for which we are conducting a clinical trial are people with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Their disease, as well as their therapy, has depleted their body's ability to respond adequately to the first-generation vaccines. They're at very high risk, and they need to have protection. It's not something we can wish away. It's a very important and critical medical need.
We're conducting two clinical trials among those. What is important so far is that our results have shown that the immune response is coming from our vaccine in direct comparison to the mRNA vaccines, that ours are exceeding those of either the Pfizer or Moderna that we're seeing. In fact, in the CLL, in the chronic lymphocytic leukemia population, we announced just recently at two international symposia or congresses, we had the data presented comparing specifically our vaccine versus the Pfizer vaccine. The results were, first of all, very safe is our vaccine. It's well known. It's been around, the technology, for many years, so people don't have to worry about it. Most of all, the Data Safety Monitoring Board that oversees that study halted the Pfizer arm because it did not meet its desired endpoints. The GeoVax vaccine actually exceeded those.
The remainder of that trial, which is continuing today and hopefully will be completed by the end of this year, is only utilizing the GeoVax vaccine because it demonstrated immune levels that are protective, considered protective, versus what was seen in the Pfizer vaccine. This is very important and very exciting for us and our shareholders. We also have other programs advancing, and they're in major markets. Our mpox/smallpox vaccine, I gave an update of that recently on this program, on this Congress, and that's continuing to, and our Gedeptin and our solid tumor therapy continues to advance. We have upcoming milestones on all of our programs yet this year into next year. We look forward to announcing updates on those types of, not just on the COVID-19, but other programs.
With that, I'm going to end and just simply say that keep in mind, 40+ million individuals in the U.S. alone, over 400 million worldwide, at very high risk, and hopefully our vaccine is going to offer them the type of protection they need. I'll halt right there. If you have any questions and we have time, I'm happy to take those. Thank you.
Thank you, David. Yes, what's your financial status and plans for the remainder of 2025?
Thank you. Good question. We did, we raised money and added to our balance sheet in early July. We currently are looking again to raise additional cash. We expect to probably add between $12 million and $15 million by the end of the year. We are continuing to add capital so that we can support the progress with all of our programs.
Do you foresee any strategic events or options over the next year?
Not so much strategic. The one we're asked about is based upon the recent announcement that Bavarian Nordic, which is a company that also utilizes the type of platform that we do for vaccines, they're being acquired for $3 billion by a private equity firm. They've agreed to that. Because of that similarity in that company, and although we're a much smaller company, we have a lot of questions coming to us from interested individuals, especially in the investment community. What do we think that would mean for us? We really don't know what that would mean for us, but we'll stay focused on advancing our programs, and what may evolve will evolve, and we'll keep everybody updated.
How does the short-staffed FDA affect GeoVax?
It's affecting GeoVax not that much. The reason why is our current programs, they're actively underway right now. We're in touch with our FDA program individuals with whom we interact. There's been no impact on us from that regard. We stay in close contact with them. Right now, everything we have is continuing to go forward successfully. Our biggest challenge as a small company is continuously building the balance sheet so that we can go at the pace we'd like to, and if at all possible, accelerate the pace.
David, can you talk about your stock price? What are you doing to boost the stock price? One of our viewers thinks some analysts think your stock should be around $5 to $6 a share.
Some of them are saying $8 to $12 even. Obviously, we agree with those analysts and those predictions in terms of what would translate into how undervalued we are. What we're trying to do is such as what we're doing today. We're trying to be very transparent and communicate as much as possible to the investment community, either existing investors as well as potential investors, of what we're doing, the potential value behind our programs, and why we're so excited to be part of this organization and advancing the programs. If others have better ideas and stuff, we'd love to hear from them. Right now, what we're focused on is continuously communicating as much as we can in terms of our progress and what we're seeing out in the investment world and support.
We are receiving a lot of interest in terms of from the investment community of wanting to work with GeoVax. Hopefully that will translate not only to additional capital on the balance sheet, but also we'll see greater activity behind the stock, meaning liquidity, as well as an increased stock price.
Perfect. Thank you, David, for this update. Always a joy having you on our program, and we look forward to the next update real soon.
Thank you, and I appreciate all the viewers. Thanks.