Melbourne: Tennis player Novak Djokovic and his wife have invested in a Danish drugmaker experimenting with treatment for Covid-19, local media reported.
Ivan Loncarevic, chief executive director of QuantBioRes A/S, was quoted by the newspaper BT as confirming Djokovic’s stake. Together with his wife, Jelena, the couple own 80% of the Copenhagen-based company, which hasn’t yet brought any Covid-19 treatments to the market, BT said.
The unvaccinated tennis player missed the Australian Open this month after authorities there revoked his visa on health grounds amid protests by Australians. The government said it was committed to protecting the country’s borders amid the pandemic.
QuantBioRes is experimenting whether it’s possible to interfere with the virus by employing the so-called resonant recognition model, according to its website. According to Denmark’s official company registry, the Djokovics, who are based in Monaco, bought their stakes in June 2020.
A federal court in Australia upheld the government’s decision to revoke Djokovic’s visa, ending a 10-day saga that started with him entering the country on a medical exemption from vaccination rules granted by local authorities only to be detained for violating federal visa rules and then released after a court ruled that border guards had not followed procedures.
Three Australian Federal Court judges, on Thursday, revealed their reasons for backing a government order to deport Djokovic, explaining they did not consider the ‘‘merits or wisdom of the decision.’’
The judges on Sunday unanimously endorsed Immigration Minister Alex Hawke’s decision to deport the 34-year-old Serb following an urgent court challenge on the eve of what was to be Djokovic’s first match in defense of his Australian Open title. Djokovic accepted the verdict and flew from Melbourne to the United Arab Emirates hours later.
Chief Justice James Allsop and Justices James Besanko and David O’Callaghan on Thursday released a 27-page explanation of why they rejected Djokovic’s challenge.
‘‘The court does not consider the merits or wisdom of the decision,’’ the judges said. ‘‘The task of the court is to rule upon the lawfulness or legality of the decision.’’
“Another person in the position of the minister may have not cancelled Mr. Djokovic’s visa. The minister did,’’ they added.
Djokovic had his visa revoked at Melbourne’s airport on January 6 hours after arriving because he wasn’t vaccinated against COVID-19. A judge later found that the border officer’s decision to cancel the visa was legally unreasonable and restored it.
But Hawke used his sweeping discretion under the Immigration Act to cancel the visa again on Friday on the broad ground of public interest.
Djokovic was a ‘‘high profile unvaccinated individual’’ whose presence in Melbourne ‘‘may foster anti-vaccination sentiment’’ and increase pressure on the health system, Hawke said in his 10-page decision to revoke the visa.
