Brisbane biotech Vaxxas has secured about $90 million to bring its needle-free vaccine patch closer to market, made up of $49.2 million in Series D equity led by SPRIM Global Investments and a $40 million debt facility, the company announced in August 2025.
Vaccines still mostly rely on needles, cold storage and trained staff, which adds cost and makes it harder to reach remote communities. Needle fear also keeps some people, particularly children, from being vaccinated at all. Vaxxas, a University of Queensland spinout, is developing a patch that it says could ease all three problems.
How the patch works
Vaxxas calls its product a high-density microarray patch, or HD-MAP. It is a small patch covered in around 5,000 microscopic projections that, when applied, deliver vaccine into the outer layers of the skin, where there is a high concentration of immune cells.
The company says the patch reduces the need for refrigeration and could one day allow people to vaccinate themselves at home.
The evidence so far
Vaxxas has run clinical trials, including with flu and COVID-19 vaccines. Interim data from one trial reported strong antibody responses with no serious side effects. The technology is still at the clinical stage, and the patch has yet to prove itself at commercial scale.
The raise
SPRIM Global Investments, the venture arm of life sciences firm SPRIM, led the equity round and also provided the debt facility, which Vaxxas can draw on based on eligible research and development spending under the federal R&D tax incentive, BioSpectrum Asia reported. LGT Crestone joined as a new investor alongside existing backers OneVentures and Brandon Capital-Hostplus.
The funds will go towards scaling up the HD-MAP technology for market readiness, including installing semi-automated manufacturing lines and running later-stage clinical trials. As part of the transition, long-time chief executive David Hoey, who led the company for 14 years, is moving into a strategic adviser role.
Jack’s take
A vaccine with no needle and less reliance on the fridge would change how doses reach people, especially in places where cold storage is hard. It is a long road from trial results to billions of doses, and biotech timelines are slow. But this is world-class UQ research being turned into a real manufacturing business in Brisbane, and that is worth backing.