Vaxxinity CEO Mei Mei Hu on vaccine research and democratising health

Mei Mei Hu has taken an unconventional path to biotech’s upper echelons. She is the co-founder and CEO of Vaxxinity (formerly known as COVAXX), a biotech company that is determined to democratise health.

Prior to Covid-19, Vaxxinity’s focus was on developing a vaccine for Alzheimer’s, an innovative approach to treating the devastating neurodegenerative disease. Amid the global pandemic, the firm has rallied to the cause, dedicating some of its resources to the coronavirus pandemic with the aim of serving the underserved and delivering vaccines to the countries most in need.

Before joining her renowned scientist mother, Chang Yi Wang, in the family biotech business, Hu worked as a lawyer and McKinsey consultant –roles that have stood her in good stead as the leader of the company she now heads up.

When she was younger, Hu shied away from following in her mother’s footsteps to become a scientist. Her segue into biotech was initially to help her mother’s firm United Biomedical overcome some legal issues; now she is helping save lives and there’s nowhere else she’d rather be.

Last month, COVAXX and United Neuroscience (a spinoff of United Biomedical) announced the consolidation of their vaccine development efforts under the newly formed holding company, Vaxxinity, Inc. Hu now leads the firm alongside her husband and co-founder Lou Reese.

“It’s a vision that has been quite a while coming,” Mei Mei Hu tells Clinical Trials Arena.

“The two companies leverage the same vaccine platform, have a lot of overlapping team members and the same mission in terms of democratising health.”

“COVAXX was spun out just for Covid-19 at a time where no one really knew what it was and whether it was going to stick around. Now it’s become apparent that it’s not going away so it made sense to combine the company so we have a single, unified, aligned entity that houses the whole vaccine platform under one roof.”