Vaxxas, a Cambridge, MA- and Brisbane, Australia-based clinical-stage biotechnology company, raised US$23M in funding.
The round was led by OneVentures and UniQuest Pty Ltd. This US$23M in new funding will leverage non-dilutive financial support of more than US$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 (WHO) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The company intends to use the funds to accelerate the clinical program for its COVID-19 vaccine patch candidate, which is currently in Phase I clinical trials.
Led by CEO David Hoey, Vaxxas is a biotechnology company focused on enhancing the performance of existing and vaccines with its proprietary high-density microarray patch (HD-MAP). The company is targeting initial applications in infectious disease and oncology.
The clinical program 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.
Vaxxas’ core technology was initially developed at The University of Queensland (UQ), and the company was established as a startup in 2011 by UQ’s commercialization company UniQuest, a major shareholder in Vaxxas. The company was founded with the completion of an initial equity financing led by OneVentures Innovation Fund I with co-investors Brandon Capital Partners, Brandon BioCatalyst, and US-based HealthCare Ventures, followed by a further financing led by OneVentures.
FinSMEs
05/12/202