Novak Djokovic is the majority shareholder of a biotech company seeking a treatment for covid that does not require a vaccine

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BBC News World

12 minutes

The Australian Open showed how averse Novak Djokovic is to covid-19 vaccines.

Now, a few days after the Serbian tennis player was deported from that country for not complying with the sanitary regulations for his entry, it was learned that he is owner with his wife 80% of las actions of the Danish biotech company QuantBioRes, created in mid-2020 and seeking a cure against the disease caused by the coronavirus.

“He is one of the founders of my company, which was founded in June 2020,” QuantBioRes general manager Ivan Loncarevic told AFP on Wednesday.

According to information from public records in Denmark, the number one in world tennis owns 40.8% of the shares and his wife, Jelena Ristic, 39.2%.

The company is developing a product that inhibits the infection of the coronavirus in thes cells human, Loncarevic explained to the Reuters agency.

“Our goal is to develop a new technology to combat resistant viruses and bacteria and we decided to use covid as a showcase“said the executive.

He stressed that the treatment they are working on It has nothing to do with vaccinations..

“If we are successful with covid, we will be successful with other viruses,” he added.

QuantBioRes plans to start clinical trialsin the UK next summer.

Loncarevic told the Danish newspaper BT how he got to the Serbian tennis player.

“When I started working on this, I defined the project, made a business plan, explained who was going to participate and what it would cost, and made an official document that I sent to different people who I thought might be interested,” he explained.

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The executive did not want to reveal the amount of the investment in the company.

QuantBioRes has about 11 researchers in Denmark, Australia and Slovenia, according to Loncarevic.

Until now, Djokovic has not commented on this undertaking.

deported from australia

The 34-year-old tennis player was deported from Australia on Sunday after a court in that country confirmed the cancellation of his visa.

Djokovic, who has not wanted to be vaccinated against covid, had been granted a medical exemption to enter Australia by two independent health panels, one from Tennis Australia and the other from the Victorian state government.

The athlete claimed that he had given a positive coronavirus test in mid-December and that he had overcome the disease.

However, the 20-time Grand Slam winner was detained by the Australian Border Force upon entering the country on January 5 for failing to meet federal coronavirus requirements and his visa was revoked, although a judge later allowed him to stay.

A few days later, the Australian Immigration Minister canceled his visa again on the grounds of “health and law enforcement reasons being in the public interest”.

The appeal filed by the athlete did not prevent him from being deported.