From lab to boardroom – kick-starting medtech brainwaves

Helping patients by solving an unmet medical need whilst creating jobs and generating a revenue stream might seem like the ultimate win-win-win for a healthcare professional.

However, getting a good idea to market means embarking on a long and winding road to commercialisation.

Enter the Australian Clinical Entrepreneur Program, or “AUSCEP” launched recently in Perth.

The program aims to support clinical entrepreneurs with the advice, training and resources to navigate Australia’s healthcare market.

Budding entrepreneurs are encouraged to apply to join the 12-month program and get support from a network of 100-plus like-minded clinicians and mentors.

The first round of the program has already been opened and 151 applications – about 70 per cent from doctors – were received. The successful applicants will be announced imminently.

“WA has a long history of medical research and we certainly punch above our weight in that respect,” says Dr Tracey Wilkinson of MTPConnect, established by the Australian Government to drive initiatives in the medical technology, or “medtech”, biotechnologies and pharmaceuticals sector.

“However, we haven’t really capitalised on that research from a commercial perspective.”

“Clinicians are very busy people and without the right support their idea doesn’t progress any further – or they lack the commercial expertise to take it forward in the real world.”

Thomas Hanly, Managing Director of medical imaging company Singular Health Group, welcomed the establishment of AUSCEP.

“It’s a common adage in the medtech space that clinicians and researchers don’t have the commercial skills to get something to market so I think it’s quite exciting,” Hanly said.

“So many clinicians are looking to innovate but probably don’t have the skill set to do it.”

Singular Health began life in 2017 when a Perth clinician – gynaecological oncologist Dr Jason Tan – started work on an unmet medical need.

Tan wanted to better understand a patient’s tumour before complex surgery was performed.

He collaborated with software developers and their work was developed into a technology platform which creates 3D or virtual reality models from two-dimensional images.

That work gave birth to Singular Health, that listed on the ASX in 2021.

Two notable medical professionals who’ve also been down the clinical entrepreneurial road attended AUSCEP’s launch.

Innovations by leading plastic and reconstructive surgeon and former Australian of the Year Professor Fiona Wood led to the development of new treatments for burns patients, notably a spray-on solution of skins cells.

In 1999, Wood co-founded Clinical Cell Culture, which later became Avita.  

She is now an AUSCEP mentor and ambassador.

Professor Barry Marshall won the Nobel prize in physiology with Robin Warren in 2005 for the discovery the bacterium Helicobacter pylori caused most peptic ulcers, not stress as was widely believed.

Marshall later helped launch a Perth company called Tri-med to satisfy a need for a reliable diagnostic test for H. pylori.

Tri-med has since grown and now distributes therapeutic products to more than 30 countries as part of the burgeoning global demand for pharmaceutical and medtech products.

The CSIRO has predicted global revenue generated by this sector will reach an eye-watering $3.7 trillion in 2025, with medtech alone accounting for $1 trillion.

MTPConnect anticipates those same two industries could create 28,000 jobs and 200 new companies in Australia by 2025.

In the broader life sciences sector, that includes biotechnology in addition to health and medical life sciences, WA is said to have experienced faster growth than anywhere in the country.

WA Chief Scientist Professor Peter Klinken says: “The state has been home to the development of very successful companies, which have subsequently grown nationally or internationally – Avita, iCeutica, and Sirtex to name a few.

“The current group of companies on the rise is extremely encouraging, with Linear Clinical Research, Ozgene, Orthocell, Suda and Gelflex garnering successes while emerging businesses such as OncoRes, Respirion, Artrya, and Singular Health are burgeoning rapidly.”

ASX-listed Orthocell manufactures in Murdoch and distributes globally.

Orthocell focuses on the repair and regeneration of human tendons, bone, nerve and cartilage defects and one of its products is Striate+, used in dental applications for bone and tissue regeneration.

In June it signed an exclusive patent and trademark licence agreement for Striate+ worth more than $21 million with leading US dental implant company BioHorizons.

Meanwhile, PharmAust is investigating whether its drug to kill sheep parasites might also stop cancers in dogs and suppress rates of Covid.

In the broader life sciences sector, which includes biotechnology as well as health and medical life sciences, WA’s growth is as fast as any State in the country.

Local companies are making inroads – often working in tandem with universities.

Like SeaStock, a new entrant that combines marine science and agriculture for a biotech first.

SeaStock is the first company in WA to be granted a licence by global patent holder FutureFeed to sell a seaweed called asparagopsis that drastically reduces methane production in ruminant livestock.

Studies show that certain types of the seaweed – two of which grow naturally in WA – can reduce methane production by up to 98 per cent when fed in only minute proportions to cattle.

It also enhances the growth of cattle because for livestock, methane generation is energy intensive.

Livestock are estimated to contribute almost 15 per cent of global greenhouse emissions, placing them squarely in the firing line of the world’s policy makers seeking to cut emissions.

Asparagopsis might well be the answer.

Such innovations will come under focus next month when Perth hosts the AusBiotech 2022 conference.

AusBiotech is a not-for-profit company whose members span therapeutics, medical technology, digital health and agri-biotech sectors.

It has an investment arm to help Australian life sciences companies connect with international capital markets and compete on a global stage.

And all the world is looking to biotechnology to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems.

“I think the biggest innovations of the 21^st century will be the intersection of biology and technology,” the late Steve Jobs, legendary computer pioneer and co-founder of Apple, once declared.

“A new era is beginning . . .”

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au