Aussie biotech nabs award for needle-free vaccine technology

Vaxxas’ CEO and President, David Hoey, has been recognised with the Excellence in Biotechnology Awards by the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Australia.

Since its founding in 2011, Vaxxas has forged significant partnerships with the US Government and prominent US-based organisations, including the Gates Foundation and the World Health Organisation (WHO), to advance its needle-free vaccination technology – the high-density microarray patch (HD-MAP).

This technology is designed to replace the 170-year-old needle and syringe with a small patch featuring thousands of vaccine-coated microprojections that deliver the vaccine directly to immune cells beneath the skin.

Reflecting on the win, Hoey said “There aren’t too many jobs where you can get up every day knowing that the work you’re doing has the potential to positively impact the lives and livelihoods of billions of people. That’s what we are striving for at Vaxxas.”

He continued, “As vaccines coated on a patch don’t require refrigeration and are easy to apply, it means that with the HD-MAP, we have the potential to extend vaccine access to remote areas that are very difficult, or in some cases impossible, to access with needle and syringe.”

Earlier this year the biotech reached a major manufacturing milestone, producing its 100th batch of needle‐free vaccine patches at the Queensland‐based Translational Research Institute (TRI). Funded by the Queensland Government and TRI, the new facility is Australia’s first scale‐up biomedical manufacturing facility for early‐phase start‐up medtech and biotech companies looking to establish, build, test and develop their products.

Vaxxas has completed five successful Phase I clinical trials involving over 500 participants, testing vaccines for some of the world’s most pressing health challenges, including COVID-19, flu, and measles and rubella. The company is also conducting its first US IND-enabled Phase I clinical study for a pre-pandemic influenza vaccine, involving 258 participants, with funding from the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).

“We are proud to be working closely with the US Government and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) as we aim to enable pandemic vaccines to be distributed more efficiently. As we know, the speed in which populations are vaccinated can have a profound positive impact on public health,” Hoey stated.

Looking ahead, Vaxxas plans to distribute the world’s first commercially available vaccine patches from its global headquarters and state-of-the-art biomedical facility in Brisbane within the next three to five years.

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