CAMBRIDGE, Mass. & BRISBANE, Australia–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Vaxxas, a clinical-stage biotechnology company commercializing a novel vaccination platform, is pleased to announce a key appointment to its executive leadership team aimed at facilitating the company’s continued and accelerating growth. Dan Devine joins the company as Chief Business Officer and General Counsel. Dan will drive and facilitate the expansion of Vaxxas’ proprietary vaccine pipeline, support its existing and future industry and government partnerships, and help build out the company’s internal manufacturing and product development capabilities.
Dan has a strong blend of experience, first at a Wall Street law firm, followed by 25 years in the biopharmaceutical industry. Within the biopharmaceutical industry, he has worked for companies as large as Pfizer, where he headed an international business development group within its New York headquarters, and Patrys, a Melbourne-based developer of novel anti-cancer antibodies, a company Dan founded, led, and took public on the Australian Stock Exchange. For the past decade, he has worked for Australian-based Mesoblast, where he reported to its CEO in a variety of roles, including supporting the dual listing of Mesoblast on the NASDAQ and leading efforts to evaluate and acquire new technologies to support Mesoblast’s stem cell and immunology pipeline.
Over his career, Dan has led or supported the negotiation of over 50 M&A, licensing, financing, and other business development collaborations. Dan’s industry experience has primarily involved the development of biologics within the immunology field, experience which will be immediately valuable in his role at Vaxxas.
David Hoey, Vaxxas CEO, said “Dan’s exceptional track record in biopharmaceutical strategy development, and breadth of hands-on transactional experience, really bolsters our capabilities as we accelerate commercialization activities. Adding his licensing and business partnering capabilities at this time is particularly important as Vaxxas expands its own product portfolio through in-licensing and the number of partnered programs we expect to form with governments and industry leaders.”
“I’m very excited to join Vaxxas at this critical juncture, and I look forward to helping David and the rest of our team achieve our ambitious growth goals,” said Dan Devine, Chief Business Officer and General Counsel of Vaxxas. “The company’s technology platform and the vaccine products that it enables offer a rare opportunity to fundamentally change the way vaccines are developed and distributed worldwide. Given lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, I couldn’t think of a better time than now to dedicate myself to that effort.”
As Chief Business Officer and General Counsel, Dan will report directly to Vaxxas CEO David Hoey and has been appointed as Executive Vice President.
About Vaxxas’ HD-MAP Technology
The Company’s proprietary HD-MAP technology platform utilizes an ultra-high-density array of projections – invisible to the naked human eye – applied to the skin to rapidly deliver vaccine to the abundant immune cells immediately below the skin surface. This approach can enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of resulting immune responses of vaccines. Vaxxas uses proprietary dry-coating technology to apply an active and stable vaccine onto the projections which offers the potential to eliminate the need for vaccine refrigeration during storage and transportation – easing the resource and logistics burden of maintaining the refrigerated “cold chain.” Ease of use of the HD-MAP could enable simplified administration, potentially encompassing self-administration.
In extensive laboratory testing, Vaxxas’ HD-MAP delivered vaccines have been shown to be stable and remain active when stored and transported at room temperature and shown greater safety and protection, along with a potential for a lower dose, when compared to needle and syringe delivery of vaccine candidates for COVID-19 and influenza.
Vaxxas has completed three human clinical studies of HD-MAP involving more than 300 participants, demonstrating safety, and enhanced immune response of vaccine administration by HD-MAP.
About Vaxxas
Vaxxas is a privately held biotechnology company focused on enhancing the performance of existing and next-generation vaccines with its proprietary high-density microarray patch (HD-MAP). Vaxxas is targeting initial applications in infectious disease and oncology. In addition to HD-MAP HexaPro clinical studies of a COVID-19 vaccine patch, Vaxxas is performing demonstration work in preparation for clinical evaluation under contract with the United States Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) on pandemic vaccination solutions.
Vaxxas core technology was initially developed at the University of Queensland. The company was founded with the completion of an initial equity financing led by OneVentures Innovation Fund I with co-investors Brandon Capital Partners, Brandon BioCatalyst, and US-based HealthCare Ventures, followed by a further financing led by OneVentures. OneVentures Innovation Fund I and Brandon BioCatalyst are supported by the Australian Government’s Innovation Investment Fund (IIF) program. The IIF is an Australian Government venture capital initiative that provides investment capital and managerial expertise through licensed venture capital fund managers to investee companies. Learn more at www.one-ventures.com and www.brandoncapital.vc.
