Vaxess Technologies, Inc. is a company started by a team of four graduate students from

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

developing a suite of vaccines on the MIMIX sustained dermal delivery platform that combines high temperature stability, improved efficacy, and simplified delivery to improve global vaccine access.

History

Students Michael Schrader, Livio Valenti, Kathryn Kosuda, and Patrick Ho started Vaxess in December 2011, based on a technology created by David Kaplan and Fiorenzo Omenetto. Schrader graduated with an MBA from Harvard Business School in 2012. Valenti attended the

John F. Kennedy School of Government The John F. Kennedy School of Government, commonly referred to as Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), is the school of public policy of Harvard University, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard Kennedy School offers master's de ...

. Kosuda had been a Harvard postdoctoral fellow in chemistry, and Patrick Ho had earned a J.D in 2012. In 2012, Vaxess was awarded $25,000 from

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university. Located in Allston, Massachusetts, HBS owns Harvard Business Publishing, which p ...

for Harvard's Business Plan Contest in the Business Ventures Track. Vaxess Technologies was a semi-finalist for

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

's $100K Entrepreneurship Competition in the Life Sciences section. In 2012, it won the Harvard President's Challenge in the Global Health section and was awarded $70,000. The company was selected as a finalist for two 2013 MassTLC Awards, Start-Up to Watch and Innovative Technology of the Year: Healthcare/Life Sciences. In May 2013, Vaxess received $3.75M in funding from Norwich Ventures and an undisclosed amount of money from

angel investor An angel investor (also known as a business angel, informal investor, angel funder, private investor, or seed investor) is an individual who provides capital to a business or businesses, including startups, usually in exchange for convertible de ...

Jeffrey Walker. In August 2013, the company announced that it would be moving out of Harvard's Innovation Lab to a new location at

LabCentral Lab Central, Inc., also known as LabCentral, is a non-profit organization started in November 2013. Operating over 225,000 sq. feet in Cambridge and on the Harvard University campus, LabCentral offers a network of fully permitted laboratory and o ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

. In December 2013, the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center awarded $1.5M to local startups. Vaxess received $1M of that amount which is the most that the MLSC's Accelerator Loan Program will lend to one organization. Vaxess's CEO Michael Schrader was quoted as saying, "The $1 million Accelerator loan will enable Vaxess to grow the company’s internal R&D capabilities and deliver heat-stable vaccines to patients around the world even sooner." In January 2014, co-founder Livio Valenti was named by

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

's ''30 Under 30'' in Science & Healthcare for his work with Vaxess. In February 2014, Vaxess added

George Siber George Rainer Siber is a Canadian-American medical researcher and vaccinologist. He is known for developing vaccines, therapeutic antibodies, and diagnostic agents for infectious diseases. Siber is a former Harvard professor, current adjunct ...

, M.D. to their organization as the chair of their Scientific Advisory Board. Previously, Siber served as the EVP and CSO of Wyeth Vaccines. He also played a role in bringing

Prevnar Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine is a pneumococcal vaccine made with the conjugate vaccine method and used to protect infants, young children, and adults against disease caused by the bacterium ''Streptococcus pneumoniae'' (pneumococcus). It co ...

to market. In April 2014, Vaxess announced that Thomas Monath, MD, and Russell Middaugh, PhD. would join the company's scientific advisory board. Monath being an expert in the field of vaccinology and Middaugh being an expert in the fields of in the fields of biophysical chemistry and pharmaceutical formulation. In February 2015,

Verizon Verizon Communications Inc. ( ), is an American telecommunications company headquartered in New York City. It is the world's second-largest telecommunications company by revenue and its mobile network is the largest wireless carrier in the ...

announced that Vaxess had won one of the $1M Verizon Powerful Answers Awards. Verizon issued approximately $6 million is prizes to 12 different organizations across 4 categories. Vaxess won first place in the Transportation category, above HopOn and Matternet. In March 2017, Vaxess announced the receipt of $6M in grants from

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation The Gates Foundation is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was launched in 2000 and is reported to be List of wealthiest charitable foundations, the third largest char ...

to advance both an inactivated polio vaccine as well as a measles-rubella vaccine on the company's MIMIX platform. The grants will fund development of both the MIMIX platform as well as these two specific indications over the next two years. In November 2022, Vaxess announced $27 million in Series B funding. In December 2022, the company announced initial phase 1 clinical trial results for its flu vaccine patch. In May 2024, Vaxess announced $12 million in funding and named Rachel Sha as CEO of the company. In May 2025, Vaxess announced $9 million in funding to advance its work in GLP-1.

Technology

Vaxess's business plan is based around a technology developed by Tufts University Professors Fiorenzo Omenetto and David Kaplan. The technology uses a silk-derived protein called fibroin to stabilize vaccines so that they can be shipped and stored without refrigeration, eliminating the need for the

cold chain A cold chain is a supply chain that uses refrigeration to maintain perishable goods, such as pharmaceuticals, produce or other goods that are temperature-sensitive. Common goods, sometimes called cool cargo, distributed in cold chains include fr ...

. Vaxess is working with vaccine manufacturers to develop heat-stable vaccines and targeting a product launch by 2019.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vaxess Technologies 2011 establishments in Massachusetts Biotechnology companies established in 2011 Pharmaceutical companies of the United States Privately held companies based in Massachusetts Companies based in Cambridge, Massachusetts Biotechnology companies of the United States Health care companies based in Massachusetts Vaccine producers American companies established in 2011