MTPConnect - the Medical Technologies and Pharmaceuticals Industry Growth Centre - will provide AusBiotech with funding over two years, matched by the sector, for two projects 'recognised as big, bold ideas to improve the productivity, competitiveness and innovative capacity of Australia’s medtech, biotech and pharmaceutical sector.'
The funding is designed to support the ‘Australia-China Life Sciences Partnership Program’ increase awareness and opportunities for communication, collaboration and commercialisation between the life sciences sector in Australia and China.
According to Glenn Cross, CEO of AusBiotech, “China is currently the second largest healthcare market globally and Australia’s number one trading partner. It is timely that an initiative to increase awareness within China of the existence of an Australian life sciences industry is undertaken. We are pleased to receive support from MTPConnect to undertake this project, which aims to rapidly increase the two-way engagement between the Australian life sciences sector and Chinese investors and healthcare research and industry partners.”
The second project, the ‘Pan-Asia Regenerative Medicine Alliance (PARMA) Program’, aims to develop and implement a global framework to identify and match research, marketing and investment opportunities in Regenerative Medicine.
“With rising prevalence of chronic diseases and genetic disorders, increase in global healthcare expenditure, and rapid growth in the aging population, the regenerative medicine sector is a fast-expanding area globally," said Mr Cross.
"This project aims to leverage pre-existing relationships between Australia, Japan and Korea to develop and implement a global framework to identify and match research, marketing and investment opportunities in the sector.”
MTPConnect has selected 20 national projects to receive $7.385 million in funding over two years with proposed matched funding of $15.2 million from the sector.
Last year's launch of the program saw 14 projects receive $7.4 million in funding over two years, with matched funding of $15.6 million. This year’s program generated significant interest from the sector, with 33 applications from industry, research organisations and universities, with a proposed $25.8 million of matched funding coming from the sector.
Sue MacLeman, CEO of MTPConnect, said, “MTPConnect is focused on harnessing Australia’s world-class research to seize more commercialisation opportunities and accelerate growth. As part of our mission, we are funding big, bold ideas that will deliver results on a national scale, have sector-wide impact, and are aligned with the Sector Growth Priorities we have identified in our 10-year Sector Competitiveness Plan. By supporting projects such as AusBiotech’s we believe we can develop a more vibrant MTP sector ecosystem with more successful companies, and ultimately improve the health and wellbeing of Australia and the world.”