Evaxion

What Evaxion does

Evaxion A/S is a Danish clinical-stage biotechnology company (Nasdaq: EVAX) that develops personalized and next-generation immunotherapies for cancer and infectious diseases using its proprietary AI-Immunology platform. The platform is composed of four modular AI models — PIONEER (patient-specific neoantigens), ObsERV (endogenous retrovirus antigens), EDEN (pathogen vaccine targets), and RAVEN (viral vaccine candidates) — that together identify therapeutically relevant vaccine targets in approximately 24 hours and have demonstrated an 86% target hit rate in Phase 2 trials.

The company's pipeline includes personalized cancer vaccines EVX-01 (advanced melanoma, FDA Fast Track), EVX-03 (solid tumors), and the off-the-shelf EVX-04 (acute myeloid leukemia), plus prophylactic infectious disease vaccines targeting S. aureus (EVX-B1), gonorrhea (EVX-B2), Group A Streptococcus (EVX-B4), and cytomegalovirus (EVX-V1). The company operates a partnership-driven business model: it does not sell products directly but generates revenue through out-licensing, milestone payments, and royalties from pharmaceutical partners, supplemented by non-dilutive grants from organizations such as the Gates Foundation and the NIH.

Evaxion is headquartered in Hørsholm, Denmark, with a team of 40+ experts and cash runway extending into the second half of 2027. Its most significant commercial relationship is with MSD (Merck), which supplies KEYTRUDA for the EVX-01 Phase 2b trial and holds an option/license agreement on EVX-B2 and EVX-B3 with up to $592 million in potential milestone payments. MSD Global Health Innovation Fund is also the company's largest shareholder at approximately 15-20% ownership, linking commercial and capital structures tightly to a single counterparty.

Name

Evaxion

Legal name

Evaxion A/S

Website

https://evaxion.ai

Company type

Public

Founded year

2010

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Evaxion A/S is a Danish clinical-stage biotech (Nasdaq: EVAX) that uses its proprietary AI-Immunology platform to discover and develop personalized cancer vaccines and prophylactic infectious disease vaccines for pharmaceutical and global-health partners.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Biotech / AI-Driven Vaccine Discovery

NAICS

Biological Product (except Diagnostic) Manufacturing (325414)

SIC

Biological Products, (No Disgnostic Substances) (2836)

akta.pro primary industry

Vaccine Technology Platforms (mRNA, viral vector, protein subunit, inactivated/live-attenuated, VLP, DNA) (HLAAAEAD)

akta.pro secondary industries

Therapeutic Vaccines (cancer, chronic infection immunotherapy) (HLAAAEAB), Infectious Disease & Pandemic Preparedness Vaccines (emerging pathogens) (HLAAAEAC), Clinical Development & Regulatory for Vaccines (trials, pharmacovigilance, lot release) (HLAAAEAK)

Keywords

• AI vaccine discovery
• Cancer immunotherapy
• Personalized cancer vaccines
• Infectious disease vaccines
• Biotech licensing

Headquarters

HQ city

Copenhagen

HQ country

Denmark

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Licensing and Milestone Payments: Out-licensing of vaccine candidates to pharmaceutical partners with upfront fees, milestone payments tied to development and regulatory achievements, and royalty payments upon commercialization.
2. Research Grants: Non-dilutive funding from foundations and government agencies (e.g., Gates Foundation, NIH) to support vaccine development for specific diseases.
3. Equity Financing: Capital raised through public offerings, private placements, and warrant exercises to fund operations.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Evaxion develops the AI-Immunology™ platform, a clinically validated AI system that simulates the human immune system to rapidly identify vaccine targets and design personalized and off-the-shelf immunotherapies for cancer and infectious diseases. The company creates a pipeline of vaccine candidates including personalized neoantigen cancer vaccines (EVX-01, EVX-03, EVX-04) and prophylactic infectious disease vaccines (EVX-B1, EVX-B2, EVX-B4, EVX-V1). Revenue is generated primarily through out-licensing these vaccine candidates and platform capabilities to pharmaceutical partners via milestone payments and royalties.

Product overview

Evaxion is a clinical-stage TechBio company offering a proprietary clinically validated AI platform (AI-Immunology™) for vaccine target discovery, drug design and development. The platform consists of four modular AI building blocks: PIONEER™ for patient-specific neoantigen discovery, ObsERV™ for endogenous retrovirus antigen identification, EDEN™ for pathogen vaccine target discovery, and RAVEN™ for viral vaccine candidate identification. The company's product portfolio includes personalized cancer vaccines (EVX-01 for advanced melanoma, EVX-03 for solid tumors, EVX-04 for AML as off-the-shelf therapy) and prophylactic infectious disease vaccines (EVX-B1 for S. aureus, EVX-B2 for gonorrhea, EVX-B4 for Group A Streptococcus, EVX-V1 for CMV). The AI-Immunology platform is delivery modality agnostic and can identify therapeutically relevant vaccine targets within 24 hours.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• AI-Immunology: Proprietary AI platform for vaccine target discovery, drug design and development
• PIONEER
• ObsERV
• EDEN
• RAVEN

Products and services

• AI-Immunology™ Platform Proprietary clinically validated AI platform that harnesses artificial intelligence to decode the human immune system for fast and effective vaccine target discovery, drug design and development. Consists of modular AI building blocks (PIONEER™, ObsERV™, EDEN™, RAVEN™) that can be intelligently combined to generate tailored AI prediction models applicable across cancer and infectious diseases.
• EVX-01 Peptide-based personalized cancer vaccine for first-line treatment of advanced melanoma (skin cancer). Vaccine targets (neoantigens) are identified by AI-Immunology™ based on individual tumor profile and combined with anti-PD1 antibody (pembrolizumab/KEYTRUDA®) to improve clinical outcomes. Granted FDA Fast Track designation.
• EVX-03 Personalized vaccine for treatment of solid tumors. First vaccine combining personalized neoantigens and endogenous retrovirus (ERV) antigens, containing a proprietary targeting unit that directs antigens to relevant immune cells.
• EVX-04 Off-the-shelf therapeutic DNA cancer vaccine for Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). Designed with AI-Immunology™ targeting tumor-specific antigens derived from endogenous retrovirus elements (ERVs) from the dark genome. Contains 16 ERV-derived antigenic fragments for broad tumor coverage across patients.
• EVX-B1 Multi-component prophylactic vaccine for prevention of Skin and Soft Tissue Infections (SSTI) caused by S. aureus. Targets essential toxins and major virulence factors, designed to act across multiple parameters ensuring high efficacy, immunogenicity and targeting of functionality.
• EVX-B2 Multi-component prophylactic vaccine against gonorrhea (N. gonorrhoeae). Contains antigens present in all 1,200 published N. gonorrhoeae genomes analyzed, implying efficacy against bacteria strains globally. Has unique mode of action targeting cell division processes. Evaxion retains global rights after MSD declined option.
• EVX-B4 Prophylactic vaccine against Group A Streptococcus (GAS), which causes broad spectrum of health issues including severe invasive infections and immune-mediated conditions. AI-Immunology platform identified novel vaccine targets to combat GAS.
• EVX-V1 Multi-component vaccine for prevention of Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection in connection with solid organ transplantations. Contains novel B- and T-cell antigens and a proprietary pre-fusion glycoprotein B (gB) construct. No CMV vaccine is currently approved.

Quantifiable outcome

• 86% vaccine target hit rate in Phase 2 trial - 86% of vaccine targets triggered tumor-specific immune responses
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability5 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered major, core and minor.

• Duke University School of MedicinemajorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 April 2026Collaboration to identify vaccine targets for glioblastoma using AI-Immunology platform. Research identified endogenous retrovirus-derived antigens present in tumors but absent in normal tissue.
• Bill & Melinda Gates FoundationmajorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 June 2025Grant funding to develop polio vaccine using AI-Immunology platform, supporting global polio eradication efforts. Evaxion plans to develop various antigen constructs.
• MSD (Merck & Co.)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 September 2024Option and license agreement for EVX-B2 (gonorrhea vaccine) and EVX-B3 (infectious disease vaccine) with potential option exercise fees and milestone payments up to $592 million plus royalties. MSD exercises option in September 2025 for $7.5 million upfront fee.
• Afrigen BiologicsmajorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 September 2023Discovery partnership to design and test prophylactic gonorrhea vaccine using mRNA delivery platform developed at Afrigen. Partnership part of WHO and Medicines Patent Pool mRNA Vaccine Technology Transfer Hub initiative. Evaxion retains rights outside low- and middle-income countries.
• NIH / UMass Chan Medical SchoolminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 September 2022NIH grant supporting research on gonorrhea vaccine at Evaxion and UMass Chan collaboration.
• MSD (Merck & Co.)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 October 2021Clinical trial collaboration and supply agreement for EVX-01 personalized cancer vaccine with KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab) in Phase 2b study. Evaxion responsible for conducting the study, MSD supplies KEYTRUDA.

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• BioNTech: BioNTech develops mRNA-based immunotherapies for cancer and infectious diseases, including personalized neoantigen cancer vaccines. It is directly comparable to Evaxion's combined personalized cancer vaccine and infectious disease vaccine strategy using AI-driven target discovery.
• Moderna: Moderna operates a leading mRNA technology platform developing vaccines for infectious diseases and oncology. It competes with Evaxion in AI-enabled vaccine discovery and shares the same platform-based, multi-disease approach to therapeutic and prophylactic vaccine development.
• Gritstone bio: Gritstone bio develops personalized neoantigen cancer vaccines using a proprietary AI/ML-enabled target discovery platform. Its EDGE and SLATE platforms are conceptually analogous to Evaxion's PIONEER and ObsERV models, making it a close competitor in personalized oncology vaccines.
• CureVac: CureVac is a clinical-stage mRNA technology company developing prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines for infectious diseases and cancer. Its mRNA platform focus and pipeline breadth are directly comparable to Evaxion's pipeline of vaccine candidates across disease areas.
• Vir Biotechnology: Vir Biotechnology combines immunology and AI to develop vaccines and antibodies for infectious diseases. Its convergence of computational biology and infectious disease vaccine development parallels Evaxion's AI-Immunology platform and infectious disease pipeline (EVX-B1, EVX-B2, EVX-B4, EVX-V1).

Broad incumbents

• Novavax: Novavax is a commercial-stage vaccine developer with established recombinant protein nanoparticle platform technology used across multiple infectious disease programs. It is a broader incumbent with overlapping vaccine platform capabilities compared to Evaxion's AI-driven discovery approach.
• Regeneron Pharmaceuticals: Regeneron is a large biotech with deep capabilities in antibody-based immunotherapies and the VelociSuite platform for rapid target discovery. Its broad oncology and infectious disease pipeline overlap thematically with Evaxion's AI-driven immunotherapy development.

Emerging players

• Personalis: Personalis develops AI-driven genomic profiling for cancer and immune profiling for therapy selection. While not a vaccine company, its NeXT Personal platform uses AI/ML to identify tumor-specific neoantigens, providing partial overlap with Evaxion's PIONEER model and personalized cancer vaccine approach.
• Adaptive Biotechnologies: Adaptive Biotechnologies uses immune sequencing and machine learning to characterize the immune system for diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Its immune repertoire profiling technology overlaps conceptually with Evaxion's immunopeptidomics-driven vaccine target discovery.
• Arcturus Therapeutics: Arcturus Therapeutics develops mRNA-based vaccines and therapeutics, including self-amplifying mRNA technology. Its pipeline of infectious disease and rare disease mRNA candidates makes it an emerging competitor in the AI-enabled vaccine space overlapping with Evaxion's platform.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/EvaxionBiotech
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@Evaxion_ai
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/evaxion-biotech

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds9 records

Investors7 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Evaxion