Baxiva Secures 3 Million Dollars for Coli Vaccine

(CONNECT) Baxiva will be able to continue its mission to develop a novel vaccine against the Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacterium with an additional $3 million, according to an announcement. They come from CARB-X, a non-profit public-private partnership led by Boston University. The money comes from the budgets of the US and German health ministries, from a charitable fund in the UK and from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. CARB-X invests in early antibacterial research to tackle the growing problem of resistant bacteria.

Baxiva, a biotech start-up founded in Schlieren in June 2025, is focusing on a vaccine to prevent urinary tract infections and invasive infections caused by Escherichia coli. This is the most common cause of antibiotic-resistant infections and related deaths worldwide.

What distinguishes Baxiva's approach from that of other vaccines is its goal. "Our immune system is always on the lookout for bacteria that invade our bodies, and it is usually very good at killing them," explains Giorgia Greter, co-founder and CEO of the spin-off from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, in an article in the same publication. But these harmful E. coli bacteria hide under their polysaccharide or glycan capsule. "Our vaccine teaches the immune system to recognize and attack the capsule."

Baxiva's technology is based on a well-known type of vaccine, a glycoconjugate. For a long time, it was considered impossible to develop a glycoconjugate for E. coli. The breakthrough came when the team identified a specific chemical latch that is common to the many different polysaccharides of E. coli.

Baxiva hopes to be the first on the market with a truly effective vaccine. "So we have to prove that we will achieve higher coverage or better protection," says Greter. "The literature strongly suggests that our approach of targeting the glycan capsule is the right one." ce/mm