Australia invests $11m across three biotech start-ups
The Australian government has agreed to invest A$13.3 million ($11 million) into three local healthcare start-ups via it’s Biomedical Translation Fund (BTF).
BioScience Managers, which was selected to manage the fund last year alongside OneVentures and Brandon Capital, will execute the transaction. BTF was set up as part of a A$1.1 billion innovation agenda with A$250 million of government seed funding to be matched by at least another A$250 million in private backing.
The latest deployment includes A$5 million investments for both Rex Bionics, a robotics company focused on personal mobility, and Charm Informatics, a data services provider for smart medical device makers. Saluda Medical, a company developing a spinal cord stimulation system, will receive A$3.3 million.
Saluda received a A$53 million Series D round in May led by Action Potential Venture Capital (APVC), an investment arm of UK pharmaceuticals company GSK. Biosciences is also an existing investor in the company, having contributed to a $10 million round alongside New South Wales Medical Devices Fund in 2015.
“Australia is a world leader in health and medical research but all too often, it takes many years and offshore investment to turn these discoveries into new and better options for patients,” Health Minister Greg Hunt said in a statement. “This vital funding will support researchers when they need it most - for clinical testing, developing prototypes and other requirements before a high potential product or service can come on the market.”
Principal co-investors in BTF include Australian Super, Hostplus, Hesta, and Statewide Super. The fund’s first investment was made earlier this year by OneVentures with a $10 million commitment to Prota Therapeutics for the development of a new treatment for peanut allergy in children.
Additional government initiatives in the healthcare space include the $20 billion Medical Research Future Fund and a research and development tax incentive. Meanwhile, scientific research agency CSIRO and a medical technologies development program known as MTPConnect have formed a partnership with a view to supporting the local start-up ecosystem with a pipeline of technical discoveries.
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