A group of Kiwi biotech experts have managed to secure $3.3 million in private funding as they join the global race for a Covid-19 vaccine.
Established in May, off the back of New Zealand's first wave of the virus, the Covid-19 Vaccine Corporation (CVC) aims to reach their first round of human trials by 2021.
It estimates the total cost of getting the drug to market sitting at $8 million. Today it confirmed around $3.3 million in private funding, bringing it up to $4.3 million raised in private funding.
It's also received a boost of $488,000 in funding from the Government.
CEO Dr Robert Feldman says while they're not trying to produce the first vaccine to hit the market around the globe, they are wanting to make the "superior" product.
"We are taking painstaking measures that are designed to make our vaccine generate an improved response rate while being cost-efficient to produce."
The company says the vaccine uses a unique New Zealand design which focuses on the use of tiny, biodegradable biobeads, which are then coated with small fragments of coronavirus.
It's a technology that was first produced by a spin-off company of Massey University, Polybatics.
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