A New Zealand company's hoping to contribute to the worldwide Covid-19 vaccine effort

Covid-19 Vaccine Corporation has raised five million dollars to develop a vaccine to help protect people against variants of the virus.

Chief executive Dr Robert Feldman says it would work alongside existing vaccines to broaden or enhance their coverage.

He says the results from laboratory tests should be back in about six months.

Feldman says if the data's good, the company will start requesting more overseas funding, because developing a vaccine costs hundreds of millions of dollars.