While several vaccines against covid are already on the market, the Basel company RocketVax is seeking to develop a solution that it describes as “second generation”. The subsidiary of Swiss Rockets, an incubator for Swiss start-ups specializing in the medical field, just announced this Wednesday that it had raised 7.2 million francs to finance the preclinical phase of the development of its vaccine. This sum should make it possible to carry out toxicology tests on animals in collaboration with the company Batavia Biosciences of Leiden, in the Netherlands.
This fundraising was carried out from private investors, to the tune of 4 million, and public investors such as Innosuisse, which granted the young company a grant of 1.2 million. The canton of Basel-City and the University Hospital of Basel also contributed 1 million. RocketVax indicates that the search for funds to finance the first phase of human trials has already begun. It hopes to be able to raise another 5 to 10 million to launch a phase 1 trial by the second quarter of 2022. “We hope to register our second generation vaccine by the end of next year if we obtain authorization for accelerated market launch in the EU, the United States and Switzerland, specifies Vladimir Cmiljanovic, director of RocketVax. We are already in discussions with the health authorities.