Three Perth pharmaceutical companies will take a share of a $12 million funding injection by the federal government to develop Australian-made heart disease and diabetes treatments.
Announced by Health Minister Mark Butler today, WA’s Argenica Therapeutics, ProGenis Pharmaceuticals and Atherid Therapeutics were all named among the fourteen recipients nation-wide to receive the funding through MTPConnect.
Nedlands-based Argenica will receive $1 million to aid its second and third phase trials, testing its flagship ARG-007 and its ability to treat acute ischaemic strokes.
Discovered in Perth and researched at the Perron Institute, ARG-007 is designed to protect brain tissue from dying until blood flow can be restored – reducing brain injury and long-term disability.
It’s already being used in hospitals around the country, including in Perth’s Sir Charles Gairdner and Fiona Stanley hospitals.
Argenica managing director and neuroscientist Liz Dallimore previously told Business News the ongoing trials were the culmination of more than a decade of research.
“Because our drug is ‘neuroprotective’ essentially what we’re trying to do is hibernate the brain cells and protect them from dying until patients can receive treatment to remove the clot,” she said.
“What many people don’t realise is that as soon as a blood vessel is blocked in the brain, brain cells start to die almost immediately.
“Around 1.9 million brain cells are dying every minute that blood flow is stopped, and that’s why the time from for receiving a potentially life-saving treatment is so critical.”
Argenica could receive a further payment of $500,000 under the program, if it successfully completes several activities under the first tranche and if the project demonstrates high commercial potential.
Also set to receive a share of the funding is Bentley-based RNA therapeutics company ProGenis Pharmaceuticals – which is set to receive a $369,000 injection.
It will be used to further progress its RNA therapeutic candidate PGP-011, which is aimed at improving insulin sensitivity among people living with type 2 diabetes, towards first human trials.
PGP-011 targets the gene which causes insulin resistance to facilitate glucose uptake by the body’s cells and is intended to provide an alternative to insulin therapy.
The company was co-founded by professor Marvin Caruthers and Professor Rakesh Veedu, and spawned from research at Murdoch University, the Perron Institute and the University of Colorado Boulder.
Atherid Therapeutics was the third WA company to receive a share of spoils, with the female-founded company receiving $750,000 to progress its first-in-class ATH01.
The drug combines a natural protein with a homing peptide, targeting the drug to where it is needed to clear cholesterol and other lipids from the walls of arteries.
It would provide an alternative to balloons, stents or bypasses; all of which treat the symptoms but do not cure the underlying problem – they do not remove the cholesterol and fat from artery walls.
Developed by Harry Perkins Institute Professor Juliana Hamzah and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital head of vascular and endovascular surgery Professor Shirley Jansen, the company is backed by medtech entrepreneur and Health Translation Group chief executive Dr James Williams.
MTPConnect chief executive Stuart Dignam said the funding was to help homegrown innovations scale in Australia, rather than offshore.
“(Doing so will) drive sovereign success which will power local job creation and improve health outcomes for Australians and other around the world,” he said.
“We’re particularly pleased that 50 per cent of the funded SMEs are organisations led by women which is well above the representation of women in senior management (26 per cent) or CEO roles (10 per cent) within STEM industries in Australia.
“In addition to vital funding, these 14 companies will receive ongoing acceleration support through mentoring and access to specialist advice from MTPConnect, and guidance from our industry impact partners.”
