Dec 7, 2022

We have all heard about this Dutch startup working on Covid-19 vaccine patch to replace injectable jabs . Now recently, Vaxxas, a clinical-stage biotechnology company commercialising a novel vaccine platform, announced it had raised $23 million in new funding. The investment round was led by existing investors OneVentures and UniQuest Pty Ltd. New investors include members of the Vaxxas Board of Directors, the management team, and several individual investors. This financing will be used to advance Vaxxas’ clinical programs, including its needle-free COVID-19 vaccine candidate, and to build Vaxxas’ first manufacturing line, which will support the company’s first products through late-stage clinical trials and early commercial production. “Our confidence has only been reinforced by Vaxxas’ tremendous progress in building a promising clinical pipeline based on its novel HD-MAP vaccination platform,” revealed Dr Paul Kelly, Founding Partner and Head of Healthcare at OneVentures. “We believe Vaxxas’ needle-free vaccination technology will dramatically improve the availability, efficacy, and safety of vaccines for a range of serious and prevalent diseases, including COVID-19 and influenza. We are pleased to continue supporting the Vaxxas team through this pivotal time in the company’s growth – as it applies a breakthrough approach to address some of the most significant unmet global needs in infectious and potentially other diseases.” The financing will accelerate the clinical program for Vaxxas’ COVID-19 vaccine patch candidate which is currently in Phase I clinical trials and is based upon the company’s proprietary HD-MAP delivery of HexaPro, a second-generation version of the spike protein used in all major US-approved COVID-19 vaccines. Results from preclinical animal studies of HD-MAP delivered HexaPro published in Science Advances, showed the potential efficacy of this COVID-19 vaccine patch against all currently known variants of concern. “This financing from a strong syndicate of experienced life science investors reflects the significant potential of our considerable product pipeline and novel needle-free vaccination technology,” said David Hoey, Chief Executive Officer of Vaxxas. “With a strong foundation to our HD-MAP platform, we are well positioned to advance multiple product opportunities toward commercial launch. In the near-term, we will continue to advance our lead COVID-19 vaccine program along with other clinical initiatives, and execute our go-to-market strategy of building commercial-scale manufacturing capacity and high throughput production lines.” This $23 million in new funding will leverage non-dilutive financial support of more than $67 million which has been provided and committed to Vaxxas under contracts with US and Australian government agencies, including US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), industry collaborators, and global health organisations, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Vaxxas was founded in 2011 by UniQuest, a major shareholder in Vaxxas, which was developed at The University of Queensland (UQ). Board Of Directors. Dr. Paul Kelly is a Founder and Managing Partner of OneVentures and serves on the investment committee of OneVentures’ three main Funds, chairing the Healthcare Fund III Investment Committee, and leads the healthcare and biotechnology practice across the firm.