The investment round was led by existing investors OneVentures and UniQuest Pty Ltd; while new investors include members of the Vaxxas Board of Directors, management team and individual investors.
Needle-free future
Vaxxas is a privately held biotech focused on enhancing the performance of existing and next-generation vaccines with a proprietary high-density microarray patch (HD-MAP). The core technology was development at the University of Queensland in Australia before Vaxxas was established in 2011 by the university’s commercialization company UniQuest.
The initial applications for the tech are in infectious disease and oncology: with its lead program being a next-generation COVID-19 vaccine patch.
Proceeds from the financing will be used to advance Vaxxas’ clinical programs (including the COVID-19 vaccine, which has just started Phase 1 trials) and installation of the company’s first manufacturing lines with capacity to support its first products through late-stage clinical studies as well as early commercial production.
The company now has its development headquarters in Brisbane, Australia and its commercialization focus in the US in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
“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 $23m in new funding will leverage non-dilutive financial support of more than $67m 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 organizations, including the World Health Organization and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.