GV, formerly “Google Ventures”, has raised £20million for Vaccitech, a company founded by scientists from Oxford University.

Vaccitech is developing the world’s first universal flu vaccine and the money will help to fund a two year clinical trial of the vaccine, involving roughly 2000 participants.  This is the first time that clinical trials of a universal flu vaccine have progressed beyond stage one testing.

Vaccitech will be hoping that positive data at stage two will prompt existing manufacturers, such as GlaxoSmithKline, to partner with the company and take the vaccine on to the final testing stage.

Even at this early stage, the trial demonstrates the scale of the possibilities when the world’s largest companies and its brightest scientists join forces.