$25 million funding round gives Queensland vaccine biotech Vaxxas a boost

OneVentures has led a $25 million Series B round in a Queensland biotech startup that is attempting to commercialise technology that will make needle-delivered vaccines a thing of the past.

Vaxxas’ Nanopatch technology originated from the research of Professor Mark Kendall at the Australian Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology at the University of Queensland and allows vaccines to be delivered via a patch, rather than a needle.

Unlike traditional vaccines, which need to be refrigerated during storage and transportation, Nanopatch vaccines can be stored at room temperature, significantly reducing a financial and logistical burden on the delivery of vaccines.

President and chief executive officer David Hoey says that makes it particularly valuable tool combatting disease in emerging markets.

“In some of the large emerging markets, countries like India, where there’s a massive population and a rapidly expanding healthcare system, but poor infrastructure, this could be a game changer,” he says.

No such technology has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, and while there are some competitors, Hoey says they’re operating in a slightly different space – the delivery of therapeutics.

“Anything you have to do on a repeated basis, if you’re a patient, you’d rather be doing it with a patch than a needle,” Hoey says.

“We’d actually be happy to see other companies succeeding and getting products approved by the FDA and being used by patients. Currently the vaccine market is worth $30 billion and there are zero approved vaccine patches.”

Founded in August 2011, Vaxxas had previously raised $15 million in Series A funding from OneVentures, Brandon Capital, the Medical Research Commercialisation Fund, and US-based HealthCare Ventures.

The startup plans to apply its technology against major disease such as the flu, polio, bacterial infections and cancer.

Hoey says Australian biotech startups are faced with a challenge familiar to Australian startups more broadly – the tyranny of distance.

“Australia is a hot bed of innovation, but at least in the case of vaccines it accounts for just 2% of the market. All the business is elsewhere,” he says.

In order to engage that business, Vaxxas opened an office in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the United States, and that’s where Hoey is based.

“I’m within a 15 minute drive of half of the world’s investment in vaccine research,” he says.

“Bridging that gap, between world class innovation out of Australia and making sure it has the best chance of meeting its commercial potential by engaging all potential users of the technology is very important.

“We’ve been working with pharmaceutical companies, with vaccine developers, but by and large these are not in Australia.

“Commercialisation of technology out of Australia has its challenges, and one of the things it takes a lot of capital to take these innovations and give them a chance. So this $25 million raised in Series B capital is a big number. But it’s what it takes to take that next step.

“I will say that OneVentures, who are the lead investor, have been fantastic to work with, world class, and I’ve worked with VC funds all over the world.”

Image credit: Kendall/D2G2 research group

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