By Tony O’Riley-
Novak Djokovic is the main shareholder to develop a treatment for Covid-19 that does not involve vaccination, it has emerged.
The world No 1, who was deported from Australia this week after the government cancelled his visa in a row over a medical exemption relating to his unvaccinated status, bought an 80% stake in QuantBioRes in 2020.
Ivan Loncarevic, the CEO of QuantBioRes, told Reuters the 34-year-old acquired the 80% stake in June 2020. He declined to say how much it cost
Ivan Loncarevic, the company’s chief executive told the Financial Times that he had not spoken to Djokovic, who has won more than $150m in prize money, since November and that the tennis star was “not anti-vax”.
Djokovic flew out of Australia on Sunday after losing a legal challenge to overturn the cancellation of his visa by Alex Hawke, the country’s immigration minister, who said Djokovic’s presence in Australia might risk “civil unrest” as he was a “talisman of anti-vaccination sentiment”.
The world no 1 tennis player’s stance came to light during lockdown in 2020, while he would not reveal his vaccination status back in October.
His opposition to vaccination came during an interaction two days after Djokovic’s Instagram Live with Murray, when the men’s world No 1 took part in a live Facebook chat with fellow Serbian athletes.
It was during this 69-minute discussion when he opened up about vaccines and how it could impact his participation in events.
“Personally I am opposed to vaccination and I wouldn’t want to be forced by someone to take a vaccine in order to be able to travel,” Djokovic said on 19 April 2020.
“But if it becomes compulsory, what will happen? I will have to make a decision. I have my own thoughts about the matter and whether those thoughts will change at some point, I don’t know.”
A month later Djokovic laid bare another unorthodox view when claiming polluted water could be purified through positive emotions while speaking to “wellness guru” Chervin Jafarieh on an Instagram Live.
And then in June he organized the controversial Adria Tour, an event which lacked social distancing, featured full crowds, and ultimately ended early when Covid-19 spread among the players and some of their close contacts.
Djokovic confirmed he contracted Covid-19 on 23 June 2020, two days after Grigor Dimitrov’s positive test and a week after the pair partied in a Belgrade nightclub – with other players including Dominic Thiem and Alexander Zverev.
The tennis season eventually, officially, resumed in mid-August, with the US Open starting at the end of that month. Speaking to New York Times ahead of the grand slam, Djokovic sought to clarify his vaccination stance.
Djokovic faces a likely bar from defending his French Open title in Roland Garros in May after the French government ruled on Monday that all athletes will have to be vaccinated in order to attend and compete in sporting events, acquired his stake in the company in June 2020.
The company is developing a peptide, which inhibits the coronavirus from infecting the human cell, and it expects to launch clinical trials in Britain this summer, Loncarevic said.