Gates-backed Affini­vax grabs $10M up­front and a ma­jor league part­ner for a ground­break­ing at­tempt to beat Pfiz­er’s su­per­star vac­cine

Over the past three years Steve Brug­ger and the crew at Cam­bridge, MA-based Affini­vax have been work­ing steadi­ly on a next-gen plat­form for vac­cine de­vel­op­ment, lay­ing the ground­work — with key sup­port from the Bill & Melin­da Gates Foun­da­tion — for the first clin­i­cal tri­al of what they be­lieve can be a break­through in the vac­cines field.

This morn­ing, Brug­ger is un­veil­ing a col­lab­o­ra­tion with Astel­las, which had ear­li­er signed on to col­lab­o­rate on a very ear­ly-stage vac­cine pro­gram at the biotech. Now Astel­las has come in with $10 mil­lion to front their pact on the lead ef­fort, sign­ing off on an undis­closed set of mile­stones and roy­al­ties while agree­ing to shoul­der the full cost of the clin­i­cal pro­gram that lies ahead.

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