9 septembre | New grant program to assist Victorian biotechnology - www.premier.vic.gov.au
A new $500,000 Brumby Labor Government pilot program will help Victoria’s small-to-medium-sized biotechnology companies compete in global markets, Innovation Minister Gavin Jennings announced today.
Mr Jennings said the Biotechnology International Partnering Program (BIPP) would provide grant assistance for eligible Victorian companies to attend recognised overseas biotechnology conferences and trade events.
“The Brumby Labor Government is taking action to ensure Victoria remains at the forefront of the Australian biotech industry by supporting the growth and global potential of our biotechnology companies,” Mr Jennings said.
“Under the BIPP Victorian companies will be able to participate in international events such as trade fairs and conferences which may have been out of their reach previously. It will also allow them to the select events that best suit their needs.
“Attending these events provides opportunities for partnering and licensing deals which can help build local capabilities and facilities that will create jobs for Victorian families.”
Mr Jennings said the running and success of the BIPP would be evaluated after 12 months with companies involved surveyed as part of the evaluation.
He said the BIPP would provide funding that can be used to pay for expenses, airfares and accommodation, conference entry, non-confidential pitching documents, exhibition stands and other promotional costs involved with the conference.
“The biotech sector relies heavily on partnering and licensing deals to commercialise products but there are significant development and commercialisation barriers that Victorian biotechnology firms face in the international arena which have been compounded by the global financial crisis,” Mr Jennings said.
“The aim of the BIPP is to give companies some assistance to overcome these hurdles and promote themselves, and Victorian biotech capabilities, to the world.”
5 août | New biomedical research infrastructure for Melbourne - www.invest.vic.gov.au
A new $45 million neuroscience research building under construction at the Austin Hospital in Melbourne will rival the world’s best, leading the way in mental heath and neurological research and ensuring Victoria remains at the forefront of international biomedical research.
The Austin Neuroscience Facility will form part of a $225 million centre for neuroscience and mental health research that will bring together recognised world leaders in epilepsy, stroke, Alzheimer's disease and brain-imaging into a single, purpose-built site.
Federal Community Services Minister Jenny Macklin said the new infrastructure will harness Victoria's neuroscience resources into a single collaborative project using the existing strengths and talents of the institutions involved.
"The Rudd Government is investing significantly in health and medical research including a $3.2 billion package of health infrastructure projects to take us into the 21st century.
"This includes more than $430 million for medical research infrastructure to help turn research into solutions for some of our most difficult medical challenges," Ms Macklin said.
Victorian Innovation Minister Gavin Jennings also welcomed the start of works on this important project.
"The Austin Neuroscience Facility will help consolidate research and clinical experts, facilitate collaboration and develop leading technologies to advance medical research and clinical practice," Mr Jennings said.
"Housing staff from the Florey Neuroscience Institutes, the University of Melbourne and the Mental Health Research Institute, this facility will help attract and retain some of the world's most talented scientists while enhancing our ability to collaborate with scientific and commercial partners."
The Australian Centre for Neuroscience and Mental Health Research is co-funded by the Victorian Government ($53 million) and the Commonwealth Government ($77 million).
31 juillet | Australian scientists develop malaria vaccine - www.austrade.gov.au
Scientists at Melbourne’s Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research have developed the world’s first genetically-modified strain of the malaria parasite to be used as a live vaccine against this disease.
The Australian scientists worked in collaboration with researchers from the United States, Japan and Canada.
Human trials will begin next year in the United States.
Professor Alan Cowman, who heads Walter and Eliza Hall’s Infection and Immunity division, said that the scientists had deleted two key genes in the Plasmodium falciparum parasite, which causes the type of malaria most deadly to humans.
By removing the genes the malaria parasite is halted during its liver infection phase, preventing it from spreading to the blood stream where it can cause severe disease and death.
Professor Cowman explained that the vaccine will give people a live parasite which cannot cause malaria but will allow the development of antibodies and a response that will give immunity. “We believe that our genetically attenuated parasite approach provides a safe and reproducible way of developing a whole organism malaria vaccine,” he said.
Vaccine development using a weakened form of the whole organism that causes a particular disease has been successful in eradicating smallpox and in controlling diseases such as polio and flu.
More than one million people around the world die each year from malaria.
30 juin | Australian researchers make cancer breakthrough - www.austrade.gov.au
Researchers in Sydney have developed a way to overcome drug resistance in tumors, the prestigious medical journal Nature Bioechnology has reported.
Drug resistance is a major problem in effective cancer chemotherapy, threatening the long-term survival of cancer patients.
The Australian scientists have worked out a way to use nano-sized particles as ‘Trojan horses’ to deliver therapeutic agents to cancer cells to kill them. This treatment is the result of five years’ research by the Sydney biotechnology company, EnGeneIC, and is applicable to a wide spectrum of cancer types.
Founded in 2001, EnGeneIC Pty Ltd is a private company which was formed to develop and commercialise novel concepts in the targeted delivery of chemotherapeutics for cancer drugs in-vivo. The company has been funded by Australian Government backed venture capital funds and private investors, and won support from the New South Wales Government.
The first human clinical trials will be carried out within weeks.
Professor Ian Fraser, Chairman of the Australian Cancer Research Foundation's medical research advisory committee, said that these findings are a significant breakthrough.
29 mai | US buys $US180m in swine flu vaccine from CSL - www.theage.com.au
The US government has placed a $US180 million ($232 million) order with CSL for vaccine antigen to swine flu as part of its preparations to combat a flu pandemic.
CSL said on Friday the vaccine antigen for A(H1N1) influenza would be manufactured in Australia.
The contract has been signed with a CSL subsidiary, CSL Biotherapies.
The vaccine will be manufactured at CSL's facility in Parkville, in Victoria, and will be tested in clinical trials funded by US Department of Health and Human Services.
CSL said the contract also provided the US government with the opportunity to use CSL's antigen filling and finishing capability at the company's manufacturing plants in Kankakee, Illinois, in the US, and in Marburg, in Germany.
"CSL will maintain its commitment to supply seasonal influenza vaccines to Australia, the US and other markets," CSL said in a statement on Friday, including the Swine flu vaccine.
"CSL's partnership with HHS to address the serious threat to public health that the A(H1N1) virus represents, is confirmation that we are a leader in the global influenza vaccines market," CSL chief executive Brian McNamee said.
CSL said the $US180 million order was an initial amount.
25 mai | US biotech selects Sydney for Asia-Pacific headquarters - www.premier.nsw.gov.au
The Australian Minister for Trade, Simon Crean, has welcomed the decision by the United States healthcare and technology company, Entra Health Systems, to choose Sydney for its Asia-Pacific headquarters.
Entra Health Systems’ MyGlucoHealth’ diabetic meters will be the world’s first Bluetooth-enabled blood glucose meters available in Australia, New Zealand and the Asia Pacific. The company’s Sydney headquarters will manage the roll out of the diabetic meters across the Asia Pacific region.
Mr Crean said that Entra Health Systems’ decision to select Sydney as its Asia Pacific headquarters reinforces Australia’s strong global reputation within biotechnology and biomedical fields.
“Australia is the leading location of biotechnology companies in Asia Pacific,” he said. “There are 471 biotechnology companies of which 49 per cent are involved in therapeutics, 15 per cent in agricultural biotechnology and 13 per cent in diagnostics.”
12 mai | The Federal Budget delivered much-needed tax credits that will benefit biotech companies - www.ausbiotech.org
On 12 May 2009, the Federal Budget delivered much-needed tax credits that will benefit biotechnology companies.
In a well-earned win for biotech and small innovative companies, Senator Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research made a welcome announcement of 45% refundable tax credits for research and development, which will be available to companies in tax loss. This will provide significant benefit to biotechnology companies with a turnover under $20M.
In the announcements totalling $8.58B, which Minister Carr said “constituted a 25% increase, the largest annual increase in spending in science and innovation since records began in 1978/79,” were measures to flow through to the private sector, including:
- 45% refundable tax credits for companies with turnover under $20M;
- 40% tax credits for companies with revenues over $20M;
- $196.1M for a Commonwealth Commercialisation Institute, with the details to be determined as part of a consultation process with key stakeholders, including industry;
- $83M for follow-on funding for venture capital; and
- a National Enabling Technologies Strategy of $39M to allow the National Measurement Institute to provide for the establishment of a mature national policy framework for enabling technologies such as nanotechnology and biotechnology.
7 mai | World-class cancer centre to be built in Melbourne - www.premier.vic.gov.au
A $1 billion world-class cancer centre will be built in Melbourne to drive the next generation of progress in the prevention, detection and treatment of cancer.
The Parkville Comprehensive Cancer Centre will house the nation’s leading cancer researchers and is set to speed up the discovery of new treatments.
The centre will be jointly funded by the Commonwealth and Victorian Governments, contributing $852.2 million, with the remainder to be funded from the sale of surplus land, the private sector and philanthropic donations.
“This purpose built centre will ensure Australia stays of the global forefront of cancer care,” Victorian Premier John Brumby said.
“Our aim is for this centre to be one of the top ten cancer centres of the world.
“The new centre will draw together the very best in cancer research and education, but will also ensure that cancers, including rare and complex cancers, are able to be treated at the very highest standard.
“Investment in the Parkville Comprehensive Cancer Centre will enable Victoria and Australia to save lives and improve quality of life for thousands of people,” he said.
Over 100,000 new cases of cancer are diagnosed each year. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare estimates that one in three men and one in four women will be diagnosed with cancer before the age of seventy-five.
Last year, the Victorian Government launched its $150 million Cancer Action Plan which aims to increase cancer survival rates by a further 10 per cent by 2015 - saving 2000 lives.
Mr Brumby said the new cancer facility will be a significant research, training and knowledge resource for this ambitious target to be achieved.
“This project is another example of the Victorian Government working shoulder to shoulder with the Commonwealth Government to deliver world leading health facilities,” he said.
Federal Health and Ageing Minister Nicola Roxon said Australia had a leading reputation in the provision of cancer care.
“While there have been significant increases in survival rates over the last 20 years for most types of cancer, the number of new cases and deaths from cancer is steadily rising with the ageing of the population,” Ms Roxon said.
“This new facility will accelerate the development of new cancer treatments and improve cancer care for sufferers.”
Built on the former dental hospital site in the Parkville precinct, the new centre will bring leading cancer research and treatment institutes; the Peter McCallum Cancer Centre; the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Melbourne Health which includes the Royal Melbourne Hospital; the University of Melbourne; the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research and the Royal Women’s Hospital under one roof.
Victorian Health Minister Daniel Andrews said this alliance would provide a unique environment for the sharing of ideas and knowledge, which will in turn translate into improved patient outcomes.
“The centre will improve patient access to clinical trials, and improve care for patients with rare tumours and others forms of cancer,” Mr Andrews said.
“It will also give young cancer specialists, researchers and medical staff first-rate training and experience – helping us develop a new generation of world-class cancer experts.”
The new facility would include 194 in-patient beds, 110 same-day treatment places and eight medi-hotel beds, as well as more than 30,000 square-metres of research space capable of accommodating up to 1400 researchers and a clinical trials facility with 24 treatment places.
“Evidence from around the world shows conclusively that co-location of cancer research and treatment provides the best possible patient outcomes,” Victorian Innovation Minister Gavin Jennings said.
Demolition works on the site will commence in June with construction of the comprehensive cancer centre to begin in the first half of 2011. The centre is expected to be completed in by 2015.
28 avril | First for Australian medical research at Synchrotron - www.invest.vic.gov.au
A $14.7 million upgrade to the new beamline at the Australian Synchrotron in Melbourne will allow scientists to research cancer, heart disease and osteoporosis more quickly and accurately.
The upgrade means the Australian Synchrotron will become one of only three facilities in the world to use synchrotron technology for the treatment of cancer.
Victorian Premier John Brumby said the upgrade would help enable biomedical imaging of human tissue that allows scientists to see the early signs of cancer tumour formation.
“This is another example of this successful collaboration to bring world-leading expertise and technical capabilities to Australia’s research and clinical communities,” he said.
The Australian Synchrotron, which is about the size of football field, accelerates electrons to near the speed of light and deflects them through magnetic fields to create extremely bright light. The light is then channelled down beamlines to where scientists can work out the structure of matter by looking at the patterns of light. Most synchrotron work is research rather than treatment-related.
The synchrotron is also involved in the ongoing research into possible treatments for emerging diseases such as pandemic flues, including swine flu.
Victorian Innovation Minister Gavin Jennings said scientists from Monash University will use the synchrotron’s new beamline for microbeam radiotherapy (MRT) which allows cancer radiation treatment to be more accurately targeted to prevent damage to healthy cells surrounding a tumour.
“The investigation of heart disease and type II diabetes will be a use of the beamline while scientists will also use the facility to develop x-ray imaging techniques to determine the precise location of implanted stem cells that have been designed to treat and repair damaged tissue,” he said.
“The new facility will allow faster and more accurate research into areas such as osteoporosis, cystic fibrosis, multiple sclerosis and lung development of premature babies. It will also support non-medical x-ray imaging applications, such as forensics, archaeology, mineral research and art conservation.”
Mr Jennings commended the researchers from around Australia, in particular Monash University, who secured the funding for the new beamline from the National Health and Medical Research Council.
The Commonwealth Government has contributed $13.2 million towards the new facility and the Victorian Government has provided $1.5 million.
23 avril | Victoria well-placed to deliver bionic eye - www.invest.vic.gov.au
Victorian Innovation Minister Gavin Jennings welcomed the Federal Government’s $50.7 million investment to develop an advanced bionic eye and said Victoria was well-placed to deliver the project.
The new fund, to be administered by the Australian Research Council, will help to develop a high resolution bionic eye implant capable of restoring reading vision to people suffering from degenerative retinal conditions that account for 48 per cent of all adult blindness in Australia.
"I commend the Rudd Government on its decision to fund the accelerated development of a bionic eye as part of its response to last year’s 2020 summit as this funding is the crucial next step in advancing this technology,” Mr Jennings said.
“Victoria is well-placed to receive the lion’s share of this funding and will be assisting a world-class consortium to bid for the project.
“This funding is exactly the kind of support needed by Bionic Vision Australia’s outstanding researchers to help make bionic eye technology a reality for Australians with degenerative or inherited retinal diseases.”
“Australia has a proven track record for world-class research and technology innovation. We know the technology for developing a bionic eye is achievable and that Australian researchers are at the forefront of this research,’’ he said.
Mr Jennings said Bionic Vision Australia, a Victorian-headquartered partnership set up with the help of a $600,000 grant from the Brumby Government, had the technology skills needed for the bionic eye project.
“This funding announcement is excellent news for Australia and we encourage the support of the Bionic Vision Australia partnership, recognised as the Australian group with the skills and the technology knowledge best placed to advance this research,” he said.
Launched in November last year, Bionic Vision Australia is a partnership between the University of Melbourne, the University of New South Wales, the Victoria Research Laboratory of National ICT Australia (NICTA) and Melbourne’s Bionic Ear Institute and Centre for Eye Research Australia.
Since 1999 the Victorian Government has invested more than $3.39 billion into Victoria’s innovation and technology programs, the largest such commitment of any state government.
20 avril | Old age and new bugs - www.theage.com.au
As the population in the developed world ages, the demand for new products to increase longevity, improve well-being and combat illness is growing. Less predictable but at times more immediate, is the demand for products to tackle new viruses that can appear suddenly and quickly spread across borders, such as the current outbreak of swine flu. Biotechnology companies are answering both calls.
Biotechnology in Australia comprises over 500 companies, the vast majority of which develop products for the human health market. Biotechnology in Australia currently generates around $1.6 billion a year in revenue.
Most of Australia's biotech companies are small to medium sized, with just four companies accounting for around three quarters of products on the market. Getting these products to market can be an expensive and uncertain business. Even if successful, biotech companies can still spend hundreds of millions of dollars bringing a new drug from the point of discovery to the medicine cabinet of consumers.
But there are rewards for some. One of these is Biota, developer of the anti-viral drug Relenza. Relenza is one of the few drugs available for treatment of the influenza virus known as swine flu, which is currently creating a scare around the world. Biota earns a 7% royalty on all global sales of Relenza by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), who has a licensing agreement with Biota to promote and produce the drug.
These royalties amounted to $32.3 million in the three months to March 2009. Over this quarter, there were large orders for Relenza coming in from the Japanese and UK governments as they increased their pandemic stockpiles. This compares to just $20 million in royalties for Relenza for the whole of 2007-08, when governments slowed down their purchases. Over 2009, Biota will benefit by many millions of dollars again, with GlaxoSmithKline now urgently increasing production of Relenza, including at their Melbourne plant.
Like Relenza, most products in Australia that reach the marketing and manufacturing stage will also move onto the global stage. The Australian Pharmaceutical Product Manufacturing industry is expected to achieve sales of $9 billion in 2008-09, half of which will come from exports. Old age and new bugs around the world are keeping Australian biotechs busy. |
