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Australian biotech Vaxxas has signed a three-year agreement with US-based digital clinical trial specialist ObvioHealth to advance commercialisation of the Brisbane company’s needle-free vaccine delivery system.
The partnership comes on the heels of Vaxxas recently announcing an $89.2 million funding round to accelerate plans to transform vaccine delivery globally with its proprietary high-density microarray patch (HD-MAP) technology.
Through the agreement, Vaxxas will utilise the US company’s ObvioGo digital platform that enables trial participants to conduct study tasks from home and sponsors to manage trials digitally.
Vaxxas says ObvioGo will provide the company with a unified, patient-centric platform that streamlines data capture, improves protocol compliance and scales efficiently.
ObvioHealth’s Australian-based operations team will work with Vaxxas to ensure seamless execution and alignment across clinical programs.
“Here in Australia and across many of our neighbouring countries, tackling healthcare inequity in regional, rural and remote communities remains a critical priority,” says Taylor Major, senior director of commercial operations at ObvioHealth.
“By pairing the Vaxxas HD-MAP technology, which reduces the need for cold chain distribution and simplifies vaccination, with our ObvioGo app that enables patients to capture their trial data from any location, we can broaden the reach of life-saving vaccines globally.”
Vaxxas says the decentralised model of the ObvioGo platform is uniquely suited to vaccine development where patient accessibility, diverse site networks and rapid deployment are critical.
“ObvioGo provides Vaxxas with tools to ensure protocol compliance, participant retention and scalability, helping accelerate time-to-market for novel vaccine candidates,” says the company.
The Vaxxas HD-MAP technology represents a major advance in vaccine delivery.
Apart from enabling needle-free administration, the HD-MAP has the potential to reduce or eliminate the need for strict temperature controls reducing the costs and complexities of traditional cold-chain storage and transport.
It also creates opportunities for self-administration in the home, improving vaccine access and uptake worldwide.
“At Vaxxas, our mission is to reimagine how vaccines are delivered; this includes to regions around the world where access to vaccination has been limited by infrastructure and resources,” says Dr Angus Forster the chief technology officer at Vaxxas.
“Our HD-MAP technology offers a stable, easy-to-use solution that can be deployed almost anywhere.
“It’s exciting to be partnering with ObvioHealth. The platform will enable us to move faster, operate more efficiently and scale seamlessly as we progress to later-stage clinical studies.”
In August, Vaxxas secured an $89.2 million cash injection comprising debt and equity in one of the largest financing rounds for a private biotech company in Australia this year.
The funding comprised $49.22 million in Series D capital and $40 million in debt facilities.
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