Opening doors for medical research in Australia
Government and MRCF announce A$40m investment collaboration
The potential for Australia’s medical research sector to develop more lifesaving drugs, devices and diagnostic procedures has received a major boost with a A$40m investment collaboration between the Australian Government and the Medical Research Commercialisation Fund (MRCF).
The funding is the Australian Government’s first formal endorsement of the MRCF, which links 29 of the country’s leading medical research institutes and hospitals with two major superannuation funds, four State governments and now the Australian Government, to drive promising medical innovations through the early stages of commercialisation.
The Australian Government has committed A$20m to the MRCF under its Innovation Investment Fund programme, with a similar sum pledged by the Fund’s principal founding investors, Statewide Superannuation and Westscheme.
The new MRCF IIF fund will provide ‘seed funding’ to new companies set up to commercialise innovations from its member institutes, together with additional funding for more advanced projects that have been supported by the MRCF since 2008.
Two of these – a data logging device for monitoring the progress and treatment of Parkinson’s Disease, and a heart catheter that isolates the contrast agents used in routine cardiac imaging, stopping them from reaching the kidney where they are toxic – are likely to reach the market next year.
‘This funding ensures that we can continue to support the pioneering work of Australia’s medical researchers while reaping significant rewards for our research members, our investors and the health of the world at large,’ said Chris Nave, principal executive of the MRCF.
The MRCF has a uniquely collaborative structure, through which each partner commits its specific expertise to identifying and securing funding for the most promising innovations within Australia’s life science industry.
The 29 member institutes provide the Fund’s investors with an exclusive ‘first right of review’ of all their investment opportunities, while the investors provide a dedicated source of investment capital to develop those that show the greatest promise.
Experienced representatives from each institute undertake a ‘peer review’ of nominated projects through an Investment Review Committee, which then passes the most promising opportunities to the Fund’s manager, Brandon Capital Partners, to complete full due diligence investigations.
Such is the rigour of the process that, of approximately 150 projects proposed to the MRCF, 56 have made it to the Investment Review Committee, with so far only eight being approved for funding.
Two further investments should be finalised before the end of 2010.
