COPENHAGEN. – The pandemic has blocked Novak Djokovic’s march to tennis history, so the 34-year-old may be pinning his hopes on a cure for COVID to get his hands on another glorious grand slam before time runs out.
The Serbian superstar, who became a focus of the global vaccine debate over his failed attempt to enter Australia without being inoculated, holds a majority stake in a Danish biotech firm aiming to develop a treatment to counter COVID-19, the company’s CEO told Reuters.
QuantBioRes boss Ivan Loncarevic, who described himself as an entrepreneur, said the tennis player’s acquisition of the 80% stake was made in June 2020 but declined to say how much it was.
The company is developing a peptide, which inhibits the coronavirus from infecting the human cell, and expects to launch clinical trials in Britain this summer, according to Loncarevic, who stressed the firm was working on a treatment, not a vaccine.
The CEO said the company had about a dozen researchers working in Denmark, Australia, and Slovenia. According to the Danish company register, Djokovic and his wife Jelena own 40.8% and 39.2% of the company, respectively.
A spokesperson for Djokovic did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Djokovic has enjoyed phenomenal success– Forbes listed him in the world’s top-50 highest paid athletes for 2021. It calculated his on-court earnings at $4.5 million, dwarfed by the $30 million it said he earned off court. — Reuters
