A new startup called Ovax Inc. has raised $10 million to develop a vaccine to prevent fentanyl deaths, aiming to commercialize academic research that prevents the drug from reaching the brain.
The startup has licensed intellectual property from researchers at the University of Houston who have successfully tested a fentanyl vaccine in rats. Ovax, which officially launches this week, plans to begin the first human trials of the vaccine early next year. If successful, the vaccine will block users of fentanyl from getting high or overdosing on the drug.
“The science is there,” said JR Rahn, the startup’s co-founder. “It just takes someone to be persistent” to bring it to market. Rahn previously founded Mind Medicine Inc., one of the first psychedelic medicine companies to go public. He called the fentanyl crisis a “public health emergency.”
Fentanyl is a cheap synthetic opioid that is often added to illegal drugs and …