RocketVax AG is pleased to announce that it has successfully closed its Seed A financing round with CHF 7.2 million. The funds received include CHF 1.2 million from a research grant from InnoSuisse (Swiss Agency for Innovation Promotion), CHF 1.0 million from the Canton of Basel-Stadt, CHF 1.0 million from the University Hospital Basel, and CHF 4.0 million from private investors, where CHF 2.0 million is received in the form of convertible loans.
The use of proceeds is to prepare clinical trials of RocketVax’s Covid-19 vaccine. Dr. Vladimir Cmiljanovic, Vice-Chairman of RocketVax, explains: «The funds will be used to pay for pre-clinical proof of concept in animal models in collaboration with Prof. Christian Münz from the University of Zurich and Prof. Thomas Klimkait from the University of Basel, a pre-clinical toxicology study in animal models in collaboration with international research companies specialized for these studies, and GMP scale-up production for phase 1 and phase 2 clinical trials in humans.» The latter will be conducted in collaboration with Batavia Biosciences of Leiden, the Netherlands, which specializes in viral vaccine production.
In preparation for the next steps in the development of RocketVax’s Covid-19 vaccine, the company is now starting its Seed B financing with the goal of raising an additional CHF 5-10 million to fund the phase 1 clinical development in Switzerland, which is expected to start in the second quarter of 2022.
RocketVax’s product, the Covid-19 vaccine RVX-13, is a genetically modified SARS-CoV-2 virus without the ability to replicate and shall have the following key differentiation features:
- It increases the immune system protection while generating not only the spike-antibodies but also a broad spectrum of other antibodies and T-cells. This should result in more extended protection against wild-type viruses and protect against all virus variants (mutations).
- Its stability at ambient temperature will also allow to vaccinate and protect people in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia while at the same time minimizing the risk of new virus variants forming.
About RocketVax AG
RocketVax AG is a Swiss biotech startup based in Basel, founded in 2020. RocketVax AG is a subsidiary of Swiss Rockets AG, a Swiss incubator and accelerator for Swiss startups. The company is based on the relationship between Swiss Rockets AG, Gigabases Switzerland AG, a spin-off of ETH Zurich, and a team of expert scientists from the University of Basel, the University of Zurich, ETH Zurich, the University Hospital Basel, and the Swiss Institute of Tropical and Public Health in Basel. RocketVax AG uses proprietary molecular biology and chemical technology to develop novel vaccines. The chemical approach is based on the core technology of Gigabases, which has provided synthetically produced DNA. As a result, leading Swiss experts in immunology and virology have joined forces to implement a novel development concept against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.