Australian biotech start-up raises $20m Series B round
Vaxxas, an Australian biotechnology start-up developing a novel vaccination platform, has raised a A$25 million ($20 million) Series B round of funding from a group of new and existing investors led by OneVentures.
This new funding brings the total capital raised by Vaxxas to A$40 million. The firm was set up in 2011 and received a A$15 million Series A also led by OneVentures alongside Brandon Capital, the Medical Research Commercialisation Fund (MRCF), and US-based HealthCare Ventures.
The proceeds of the latest round will be used to advance a series of clinical programs and develop a pipeline of new vaccine products for major diseases using Vaxxas' patented Nanopatch platform - a vaccine patch for the skin that can replace needle and syringe vaccinations.
The company is headquartered in Queensland and also has a base in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which was set up in 2012 to provide better access to pharmaceutical partners.
According to a release, Vaxxas wants to license its technology to global pharmaceutical firms as well as advance vaccine candidates on its own. The company is already collaborating wiht Merck & Co. to commercialize Nanopatch platform for undisclosed vaccine candidates developed by Merck. The start-up has also secured funding from the World Health Organization to evaluate Nanopatch for polio vaccinations.
OneVentures has A$120 million in capital under management. The Australian VC firm reached a A$60 million first close on its second fund - Innovation Growth Fund II - in October. The fund is targeting $100 million for Series B and C stage investments across healthcare, education, mobile, media, cloud computing and data, sensors and robotics, and food security.
The MRCF was set up in 2007 and is managed by Brandon. It has a corpus of A$51 million and invests in the early-stage development and commercialization of technologies emerging from Australia's medical research institutes and allied research hospitals. Last month it backed Solvanix, an early-stage biotech company that has developed a technology for improving drug stability.
Although a number of government funding schemes were axed in last year's budget, there remains a strong commitment to healthcare innovation through other initiatives. Several of these were announced in response to the 2013 McKeon Review, which found that Australia had strong medical research capabilities but a poor track record in converting this into health and commercial benefits.
For example, the government has pledged a A$125 million commitment to the A$250 million Medical Research Innovation Fund (MRIF) and promised A$1 billion in seed capital for the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF).
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