Six Australian health and medical technology startups have secured a combined $13.5 million through the second funding round of CUREator+, as the national commercialisation program seeks to move locally developed therapies, diagnostics and digital health tools closer to patients and private investment.
Delivered by Brandon BioCatalyst in partnership with ANDHealth, CUREator+ is supported by the Australian Government’s Medical Research Future Fund and provides milestone-based, non-dilutive funding alongside commercialisation expertise and access to industry networks.
The latest recipients span inflammatory disease, cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurological disorders and digital health. They were selected by the independent CUREator+ Investment Review Committee on the strength of their scientific and technical foundations, commercial potential and capacity to benefit Australian patients.
Health and Ageing Minister Mark Butler said the funding reflected the potential for emerging health technologies to deliver meaningful patient benefits.
“Our Government is investing in biomedtech and health technology startups to support new technologies that can improve health outcomes and change lives.”
“These advances have the potential to make a real difference for patients, and I look forward to seeing their impact in inflammatory disease, cancer, heart disease and beyond.”
The largest allocations went to Aleris Therapeutics and Frontier Inflammasome Therapeutics, which each received $2.5 million to advance therapies for inflammatory diseases. Luma Bio also received $2.5 million to develop peptide-based radiopharmaceuticals for targeted cancer imaging and treatment.
Navier Medical received $2,130,609 to progress AI-enabled cardiac CT risk markers designed to improve prediction and prevention of heart attacks. Neurotologix secured $1.95 million to commercialise an integrated platform for the objective assessment of vertigo and dizziness, while WeGuide was awarded $1,945,111 for an AI-powered platform intended to accelerate the development and commercialisation of digital biomarkers using wearable, clinical and patient-generated health data.
Navier Medical chief executive Sander Bangma said the support would help the company take its cardiovascular platform into a critical next phase.
"Preventing heart attacks starts with seeing the disease earlier. Our Navier Heart platform turns routine CT scans into a powerful tool for early detection and personalised treatment of cardiovascular disease, by revealing the high-risk vessels hiding in plain sight. The CUREator+ program supports our next critical steps, including a prospective clinical trial, delivering our platform at scale, and progressing the company towards commercial readiness, enabling us to bring this technology to patients in Australia and around the world."
CUREator program head Dr Amanda Vrselja said the initiative was intended to address a persistent gap between Australia’s research capability and the resources needed to turn discoveries into viable companies.
"Australia produces outstanding medical research, but too many promising discoveries struggle to access the expertise, capital and commercial support needed to reach patients. CUREator+ is designed to change that. By combining milestone-based funding with experienced commercialisation support, we're enabling founders to build investable companies capable of delivering global healthcare impact from Australian innovation."
ANDHealth chief executive Bronwyn Le Grice said the selected companies demonstrated the breadth of domestic capability across data-driven and digitally enabled health innovation.
“These innovations show the breadth of Australian capability in AI-enabled diagnostics, digitally-enabled models of care and data-driven biomarkers, and we’re focused on supporting them to become globally competitive companies that deliver better outcomes for patients in Australia and around the world."
The six recipients are Aleris Therapeutics in Victoria, Frontier Inflammasome Therapeutics in Queensland, Luma Bio in Victoria, Navier Medical in Western Australia, Neurotologix in Western Australia and WeGuide in Victoria.
Brandon BioCatalyst and ANDHealth said the program was designed to help Australian founders build companies capable of achieving clinical adoption, attracting further investment and delivering global health impact from Australian innovation.
