For Novak Djokovic and the minority of athletes who are still unvaccinated, 2022 is moving forward in dots: restrictions are piling up, competitions are shrinking. But the Serbian world number one, expelled from Australia on January 16, does not seem ready to bend under the vaccination obligation which is spreading all over the world.
The one who has long cultivated a singular relationship with science, is the majority shareholder of a Danish biotechnology company aiming to develop a treatment against Covid-19 which does not involve vaccination, Reuters learned on Wednesday. . Ivan Loncarevic, managing director of the company, confirmed this investment by the Serb – he weighs nearly 135 million euros in prize money accumulated during his career – with the British press agency.
The world number one in tennis has, with his wife Jelena Djokovic, owned 80% shares in QuantBioRes since June 2020, barely a few months after the start of the pandemic. In detail, Djokovic and his wife own 40.8% and 39.2% of the company respectively, according to the Danish Companies Registry.
New strategy?
Given his misadventure at the Australian Open, does Djokovic intend to bet everything on this plan B to hope to lift a 21st Grand Slam trophy, which would be a record this season? QuantBioRes has about ten researchers working in Denmark, Australia and Slovenia, according to Ivan Loncarevic. The company’s website indicates that it has started work on a “deactivation mechanism” of Covid-19 in July 2020.
QuantBioRes seeks to develop a peptide, a molecule that would prevent the coronavirus from infecting the human cell. It plans to launch clinical trials in Britain this summer, Loncarevic said.
For the player, however, it would already be too late to hope to set foot on the courts of Roland Garros, which is scheduled for May. The Serb has been there persona non grata since Sunday evening, when the French government decided via the introduction of the vaccination pass that all athletes must be vaccinated in order to be able to participate in competitions organized in France.
