Kiwi Vax was developed by Vaccine Alliance Aotearoa New Zealand—Ohu Kaupare Huaketo (VAANZ) as part of the Government’s Covid-19 vaccine strategy. VAANZ comprises Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington. the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research, the University of Otago,  and a number of local and international collaborators.

Published in iScience, the study findings show that Kiwi Vax is highly immunogenic, robustly expressed, and has a strong stability profile. The vaccine was independently tested at the National Institutes of Health in the United States and at the University of Melbourne.

Dr Lisa Connor from the University's School of Biological Sciences is head of VAANZ's vaccine evaluation team, and says the vaccine's development would never have been possible were it not a combined effort.