GeoVax Labs Inc (OTCMKTS:GOVX): Something Big Around The Corner?

GeoVax Labs Inc (OTCMKTS:GOVX) is generating a lot of buzz on the OTC this week, having logged record breaking volume two days straight. Standard volume comes in at double digit thousand shares trading hands, but on Monday and Tuesday this rose to 5 and 6 million respectively. Price didn’t move too much, which is perhaps a bit of a red flag, but this volume could indicate something big is just around the corner. Let's try and figure out if, and what, this might be.There was one announcement that some will say drove the volume spike, but the suggestion that it accounts for such a pique in interest seems unlikely. GeoVax announced on Tuesday that it had picked up a contract from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), that will see the development of its lead HIV vaccine get under way. Now, this is good news, but it's not exactly a game changer. The award read:

"GeoVax Awarded NIH Contract for up to $7.8 Million to Manufacture HIV Vaccine for Advanced Human Clinical Trials"

It's a bit misleading at a glance. The important thing here is that it's a contract for UP TO $7.8 million. The initial funds that GeoVax will receive are just short of $200K, and these will be put to use manufacturing its HIV vaccine for the planned clinical trial. Assuming this goes well, more and more of the funds will become available to the company throughout the development process. It's also not really new news – we knew that the company had a collaboration set up with the NIH back in early July, this is just an extension on that collaboration.Yes, some investors may have missed the fact that GeoVax only gets a tiny fraction of the headline dollar number to begin with, and isn’t guaranteed any funds beyond that, but enough to cause that much of a volume spike? Unlikely.There's also the Zika vaccine. The situation in the US is heating up, and with national health alerts, Florida cases and the Olympics in Brazil kicking off, Zika companies are getting a residual boost. GeoVax has benefited from this sort of collateral buying in the past, and it's logical to think that the same is happening at the moment. Investor sees Zika all over the news. Investor Google's Zika stocks. Investor finds GeoVax's PRs and buys into the affiliation. Again though, to this degree? Unlikely.We believe something big is just around the corner, and that it could be the catalyst behind a strong move.Exactly what is unclear – for now.There's potential for a big name partnership on either the HIV or the Zika vaccine. The technology that underpins both (Virus Like Particle, VLP) has drawn partnerships for companies in a similar space as late – Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:INO) springs to mind right away – and it's easy to see how the technology would fit in to some of the big names in vaccinations.Cash position isn’t too bad, and the NIH manufacturing deal should help GeoVax avoid any dilution near term, but it could do with a capital injection a little further down the line, and a collaboration would almost certainly provide just that.GeoVax has been pretty slow to put out news in the past – the message boards knew about the latest $7.8 million contract at least 24 hours before the company put out a press release – so it's going to be important to have an ear to the ground if you want to get in first.We're watching this one closely. Subscribe to our free small cap research newsletter below and we'll let you know as soon as anything appears.Disclosure: We have no position in GOVX and have not been compensated for this article.