Vaxxas, a clinical-stage biotechnology company commercializing a novel vaccination platform, is pleased to announce a key appointment to its executive leadership team that will strengthen the company’s engineering and manufacturing operations and support the company’s robust and accelerating growth. Scott Fry joins the company as Chief Operating Officer and will lead Engineering and Manufacturing activities at Vaxxas.

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Vaxxas COO Scott Fry (Photo: Business Wire)

Scott has first-hand experience in the development and rapid scale-up of manufacturing for medical products in both Australia and the United States, leading cross-functional teams in multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology organizations.

In Scott’s most recent role as Chief Operations Officer for Ellume Limited, he was directly responsible for the successful launch of the first over-the-counter diagnostic test for COVID-19 in the United States. He has also led other in vitro diagnostic products through development and commercialization including rapid tests and ELISAs for detecting Dengue, Influenza A, Influenza B, Group A Streptococcus, Respiratory Syncytial Virus and COVID-19. Underpinning his operational and commercial acumen, Scott earned a Ph.D. in immunology from The University of Southern Queensland and spent his early career in research at the University of Queensland.

David Hoey, Vaxxas CEO, said ”Vaxxas is committed to expanding our leadership team to ensure we fulfill the game-changing potential of our vaccination technology platform. Scott brings tremendous experience and capabilities to our organization to lead engineering and scale-up our manufacturing as we accelerate product development in preparation for large-scale clinical trials, product approvals, and launches."

“This is an exciting time to be joining Vaxxas as we begin to up-scale our manufacturing capabilities,” said Scott Fry, Chief Operating Officer of Vaxxas. “This includes construction of the company’s state-of-the-art facility in Hamilton, Brisbane, where we will deploy highly automated manufacturing processes to support commercialization of our HD-MAP vaccine candidates including the HexaPro COVID-19 patch. The company’s needle-free HD-MAP vaccination technology has the potential to fundamentally change the way vaccines are developed and distributed worldwide, particularly in responding to global health emergencies like we’ve seen in recent times.”

As Chief Operating Officer, Scott will report directly to Vaxxas CEO David Hoey and will be based in Brisbane at the company’s Engineering and Manufacturing headquarters.

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.

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