Trypanophobia, the fear of needles and medical injections, impacts 10 percent of adults, according to the Cleveland Clinic. This fear makes it hard for some people to get vaccines or other medical treatments delivered through injections. Needle-free vaccines, however, offer a solution.
Dual headquartered in Cambridge and Australia, Vaxxas is one tech company pioneering needle-free vaccines, and it recently secured new funding to advance its platform. On Monday, Vaxxas raised $23 million in a funding round co-led by OneVentures and UniQuest.
For the past several years, Vaxxas has been developing a needle-free treatment delivery platform that can administer vaccines through a small patch. The patch contains micro projections that deliver medicine underneath the surface of the skin. According to Vaxxas, its vaccine tech can also promote fast absorption of the medicine by activating the lymph nodes that trigger an immune response.
“We believe Vaxxas’ needle-free vaccination technology will dramatically improve the availability, efficacy and safety of vaccines for a range of serious and prevalent diseases, including Covid-19 and influenza,” Dr. Paul Kelly, founding partner and head of healthcare at OneVentures, said in a statement. “We are pleased to continue supporting the Vaxxas team through this pivotal time in the company’s growth as it applies a breakthrough approach to address some of the most significant unmet global needs in infectious and potentially other diseases.”
With the new funding, Vaxxas plans to accelerate clinical trials for its vaccine patch for Covid-19 vaccines. According to the company, initial trials involving the needle-free vaccine platform showed “potential efficacy” when used to administer Covid-19 immunizations.
Since launching in 2011, Vaxxas has raised $99.9 million in venture funding, according to Crunchbase.
