The Australian Government is investing $18.5 million to help eight Australian startup companies to commercialise their research and help turn their discoveries into new medicines and treatment tools for cancer, pregnancy complications, eye damage, and other conditions.
Mirugen Pty Ltd received almost $2 million to develop a gene therapy which could potentially cure some types of blindness by regenerating cells in the eye to help restore vision.
OncoRes Medical will receive $2.5 million to create a device to help surgeons to better identify cancer cells during surgery. By ensuring all cancerous cells are removed, the device could improve the success rate for initial surgery and reduce the need for follow-up surgery.
Baymatob Operations has been awarded almost $2.5 million to finalise software that can identify pregnant women likely to experience severe bleeding during childbirth. The software has the potential to save the lives of both mothers and babies and help women avoid other emergencies during labour.
This funding will also support:
- Amplificare to develop a drug that will help doctors find out earlier if cancer treatment has been successful
- Currus Biologics to improve the success of CAR T-cell therapy for treatment of solid tumour cancers like cancers of the breast, colon, pancreas and prostate
- Kinoxis Therapeutics to test a new drug to reduce agitation and aggression in people with dementia
- Micromune Therapeutics to develop a safer and more effective drug to treat inflammatory bowel disease, and
- SeeTreat to create software to reduce the side effects of breast cancer treatment by making radiation therapy more accurate so it only targets cancerous cells.
The eight Australian startups were identified through the CUREator+ program, which aims to accelerate the process of turning health and medical research discoveries into clinical tools and treatments.
It is funded by a $50 million BioMedTech Incubator Grant from the Medical Research Future Fund's (MRFF) Medical Research Commercialisation initiative to identify and select Australian small and medium enterprises working on early-stage health and medical research.
These eight startups make up the first group to receive funding through the CUREator+ program, which is delivered by Brandon BioCatalyst in partnership with ANDHealth.
The MRFF Medical Research Commercialisation initiative will provide $450 million over 10 years beginning in 2024-25 to support Australian researchers to turn early-stage research into effective clinical tools and treatments.
Quotes attributable to Minister Butler:
"This funding will support exciting new treatment options for Australians with cancer, pregnancy complications, eye damage and other conditions.
"Turning new research into medicines and tools which can be used to treat patients is often a long and costly process. Our support will ensure innovative research can become life changing and lifesaving treatments.
"The Albanese Government is committed to nurturing our health and medical research sector to ensure Australia remains a global leader in this field for decades to come."
Quotes attributable to Brandon BioCatalyst's Chief Executive Officer Dr Chris Nave:
"CUREator's partnership with ANDHealth to deliver CUREator+ exemplifies what can be achieved through collaboration and a shared vision.
"With three CUREator+ alumni securing internationally syndicated funding and a pharma partnership this year, we're excited to follow the journeys of these CUREator+ awardees.
"None of this would be possible without the strategic investment into translational research from the Medical Research Future Fund."
Quotes attributable to ANDHealth's Chief Executive Officer Bronwyn Le Grice:
"The funding and expertise from this program provides the step change Australia needs to move its world class health and medical research through the commercialisation pathway and into the ultimate beneficiaries, Australian patients."
