Evaxion receives grant funding to design new polio vaccine
- Grant funding from Gates Foundation provides financial support without operational costs
- Project leverages Evaxion's clinically validated AI-Immunology platform for vaccine development
- Potential to create a safer alternative to current polio vaccines by eliminating live virus use
- Addresses an unmet medical need in global polio eradication efforts
- None.
Insights
Gates Foundation grant validates Evaxion's AI platform for vaccine development without adding financial burden, boosting their infectious disease portfolio.
Evaxion has secured a
What makes this partnership particularly valuable is that the grant funding allows Evaxion to expand its infectious disease portfolio without increasing operational expenses. The CEO explicitly stated that this project will come at "no financial cost" to the company, creating a risk-free opportunity to further validate their platform technology.
The technical approach is genuinely innovative. While traditional polio vaccines use inactivated or attenuated viruses, Evaxion aims to create vaccine constructs that eliminate live viruses from production entirely. This would address significant safety concerns in the vaccine manufacturing process and potentially overcome limitations of current vaccines that have prevented complete global eradication.
Strategically, this project allows Evaxion to demonstrate their AI platform's versatility beyond their existing pipeline. The company's AI-Immunology™ platform will identify and combine various antigens to combat the polio virus, showcasing its applicability to different infectious diseases. The Gates Foundation's support suggests confidence in Evaxion's ability to contribute meaningfully to an important global health challenge that has persisted despite decades of vaccination efforts.
For a clinical-stage biotech, securing non-dilutive funding and prestigious partnerships is crucial for extending runway and building credibility. This announcement achieves both objectives while potentially adding a valuable asset to their development pipeline.
- Evaxion awarded a grant from the Gates Foundation
- Grant funds research aimed at ultimately eradicating polio, a highly infectious viral disease
- Evaxion will apply its leading AI-Immunology™ platform to identify and combine various antigens to combat the virus and develop design options for a potential new vaccine construct
- Risk of a global polio resurgence and health crisis remain, thus a new vaccine concept is warranted
COPENHAGEN, Denmark, June 3, 2025 - Evaxion A/S (NASDAQ: EVAX) (“Evaxion”), a clinical-stage TechBio company specializing in developing AI-Immunology™ powered vaccines, receives funding support from the Gates Foundation to help the world eradicate polio (poliomyelitis) by exploring design options for a new and unique vaccine.
Despite polio vaccines being available for decades, the highly infectious viral disease is yet to be completely eradicated, meaning that the risk of a global polio resurgence and health crisis remain. Thus, a new vaccine concept could increase the possibility of eradicating the virus once and for all.
The project will combine Evaxion’s leading and clinically validated AI-Immunology™ platform with support from the Gates Foundation. Evaxion will deploy AI-Immunology™ to identify and combine various antigens to combat the virus. Based on these findings, a number of new antigen constructs will be designed for selection and validation. The work will be supported by the grant from the Gates Foundation, meaning there will be no financial cost for Evaxion.
“We are thrilled to receive support from the Gates Foundation and help the world achieve the goal of completely eradicating polio. We are excited to apply our AI-Immunology™ platform to combat yet another infectious disease. The grant allows for further application and validation of our platform without adding to our operational spend,” says Christian Kanstrup, CEO of Evaxion.
Groundbreaking new approach
Current polio vaccines are based on inactivated or attenuated versions of the virus. This creates significant issues in certain settings and leaves an unmet need in the context of the polio endgame for a new and better vaccine not based on the virus itself.
New vaccine constructs eliminating the use of live viruses in vaccine production would be a great advantage, removing the potential safety risks of growing and working with the virus. Such a groundbreaking new vaccine approach is what the project aims at creating, bringing forward an effective and safer alternative to current polio vaccines.
About polio
Polio (poliomyelitis) mainly affects children under five years of age. One in 200 infections leads to irreversible paralysis for type 1 wild poliovirus. Among those paralyzed, 5–
Cases due to wild poliovirus have decreased by over
Failure to eradicate polio from these last remaining strongholds could result in a global resurgence of the disease. Source: The World Health Organization.
Contact information
Evaxion A/S
Mads Kronborg
Vice President, Investor Relations & Communication
+45 53 54 82 96
mak@evaxion.ai
About Evaxion
Evaxion is a pioneering TechBio company based upon its AI platform, AI-Immunology™. Evaxion’s proprietary and scalable AI prediction models harness the power of artificial intelligence to decode the human immune system and develop novel immunotherapies for cancer, bacterial diseases, and viral infections. Based upon AI-Immunology™, Evaxion has developed a clinical-stage oncology pipeline of novel personalized vaccines and a preclinical infectious disease pipeline in bacterial and viral diseases with high unmet medical needs. Evaxion is committed to transforming patients’ lives by providing innovative and targeted treatment options. For more information about Evaxion and its groundbreaking AI-Immunology™ platform and vaccine pipeline, please visit our website.
Forward-looking statement
This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. The words “target,” “believe,” “expect,” “hope,” “aim,” “intend,” “may,” “might,” “anticipate,” “contemplate,” “continue,” “estimate,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “will,” “can have,” “likely,” “should,” “would,” “could,” and other words and terms of similar meaning identify forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to, risks related to: our financial condition and need for additional capital; our development work; cost and success of our product development activities and preclinical and clinical trials; commercializing any approved pharmaceutical product developed using our AI platform technology, including the rate and degree of market acceptance of our product candidates; our dependence on third parties including for conduct of clinical testing and product manufacture; our inability to enter into partnerships; government regulation; protection of our intellectual property rights; employee matters and managing growth; our ADSs and ordinary shares, the impact of international economic, political, legal, compliance, social and business factors, including inflation, and the effects on our business from other significant geopolitical and macro-economic events; and other uncertainties affecting our business operations and financial condition. For a further discussion of these risks, please refer to the risk factors included in our most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F and other filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which are available at www.sec.gov. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required by law.
FAQ
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