Covid-19: New Zealand Company Raises $ 3.3 Million for Homegrown Vaccine

A local company has obtained 3.3 million dollars in private financing to go ahead with a Covid-19 vaccine made with Kiwi technology.

The Covid-19 Vaccine Corporation (CVC), established in May, has formed collaborations with the University of Auckland, Callaghan Innovation, and the Scion research institute, in their attempt to independently develop a homegrown coronavirus agent.

The company aims to complete its first human trial of the new vaccine by the end of next year, which will cost about $ 8 million.

“We do not claim to be the first vaccine on the market,” said CEO Dr. Robert Feldman.

“Our mission is to produce a superior vaccine that, unlike the first on the market, is not created in a hurry to get to market.

“We are taking painstaking steps that are designed to make our vaccine deliver an improved response rate while being profitable to produce.”

The planned CVC vaccine differs from other candidate vaccines by its unique biobead technology that was licensed by the New Zealand company Polybatics.

He is currently working to produce small volumes of these vaccine-producing bacteria at the University of Auckland.

His method includes making biobeads coated with carefully selected components of the SARS-Cov-2 virus.

The biobeads and the coating are manufactured simultaneously inside bacteria, which is an efficient method of production for a vaccine that the company hopes will be safe and offer broad immune coverage in humans.

These biobeads are grown to scale and purified at Scion’s specialized facility, where they will be produced as a suitable test vaccine for various testing purposes.

CVC’s group of investors is led by software entrepreneurs Guy and Susie Haddleton, and includes Dr. Stephen Strother, Markon Trust, CJ and JS Reeve Family Trust and Takapuna Investments.

“The support we have from our investors is extraordinary and greatly appreciated,” said Feldman.

“We couldn’t achieve anything without the cash that is required to advance our work with the Covid-19 vaccine. I feel like investors are an important part of our team.”

Meanwhile, the government has allocated hundreds of millions of dollars – it will not reveal exactly how much, for commercial reasons – to get kiwis and our Pacific neighbors as far as possible from the line.

That involves making your own batches here. About $ 3 million of that funding will go to the biotech company Kiwi Biocell to improve its facilities and be able to implement 100 million doses.

It has been suggested that New Zealand could take advantage of Australia’s recently signed agreement with AstraZeneca, the global company behind a leading vaccine candidate.

Nicknamed ChAdOx1-S, it has already been shown to elicit the double hit of a T-cell and antibody response within a month of inoculation, and is now in the critical and final stage of Phase III.

Another Kiwi consortium has been exploring its own potential household candidates, such as an inactivated vaccine approach led by Professor Miguel Quiñones-Mateu from the University of Otago, and a recombinant spike protein vaccine that is being developed in the University’s laboratory. Victory of Dr. Davide Comoletti, during the last months.