Four prominent Australian healthtech startups have secured a total of $8.6 million in funding from the NSW (North South Wales) Department of Health.
According to their official website, the NSW government is committed to ensure that NSW researchers and innovators are able to discover and develop new treatments, diagnostic techniques and devices that will be major contributors to health reforms in the future. The funding comes from the state government’s Medical Device Fund (MDF) and will help the selected startups in developing and commercializing their innovations. The MDF is a competitive technology development and commercialization program that aims to:
- Provide support to individuals, companies, public and private hospitals, medical research institutes, universities and the medical service industry to take local innovation to market and
- Increase the uptake of NSW medical devices by the health system where they are cost-effective and contribute to improved patient outcomes.
More than $35 million has been awarded to 20 outstanding new medical technologies since the MDF began in 2013. The recipients of this year’s MDF are:
Elastagen
A startup that produces a skin regeneration and wound-repair product based on its unique tropoelastin-based biomaterial platform. The product is used in the surgical treatment of severe scars like stretch marks and acne scars. Elastagen has been awarded a total of $4 million as MDF grant.
Nano-X
Nano-X is an innovative cancer treatment system that changes the delivery of radiation therapy from large reference centers to small-town hospitals. Its advanced on-board imaging/ planning system captures 3D images in real-time, controls the radiation beam and automatically delivers the correct amount of energy to targeted tissue.
By alleviating the complexity of the radiotherapy system from hardware to software, Nano-X is less expensive to produce and site, and can deliver more comprehensive therapy sessions to patients outside major urban locations. The $2.58 million MDF grant will enable Nano-X to commence animal treatments using the prototype machine, translate learnings from prototype and build a strong team to enable a scalable and sustainable NSW medical device company.
Breathe Well
Breathe Well is a device that provides breast cancer patients with breath-hold instructions to reduce the risk of radiotherapy, which can cause unnecessary and potentially fatal radiation heart damage. The startup has received $1.3 million in funding, which will contribute to the startup’s expansion and towards the manufacture of a device for certification by the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration.
HEARworks
HEARworks offers a range of technologies and clinical and research services developed by The HEARing Cooperative Research Center (HEARing CRC). The startup received $750,000 for the development of the Auditory Cortical Discrimination (ACORD) test which looks to assist clinicians in deciding which hearing-impaired infants should receive cochlear implants.
The first three startups operate out of ATP Innovations, which is Australia’s leading business incubator. ATP’s Chief Innovation Officer, Ben Wright says,
This is an outstanding result for our portfolio companies and for the medtech industry in NSW. ATP Innovations is all about encouraging the state’s talent and we have an unsurpassed record in helping medical technology startups and scale-ups build and commercialize their intellectual property. None of this incredible technology comes about without collaboration between talented entrepreneurs, researchers, universities and industry.
