Investing in Biotech.

Time eternally moves throughout our lives, closely accompanied by its long-time associate: ageing. Both are all-inclusive, limitless in their international reach. Despite being essential to survival, progression, and maintenance in every facet of every person’s life, some changes - especially those which occur to our bodies - have become stigmatised, criticised, and undermined as embarrassing and abnormal, even when they are not. For billions of people across the world, particularly women, these life-changing moments in time include pregnancy, childbirth, and menopause, all of which bring about a multitude of changes to bodies and lives. These moments may also bring about a stereotypically taboo, yet significantly burdensome condition, called urinary incontinence.

Replacing incontinence with confidence and control: Medical technology company Analytica (ASX: ALT) has spent ten years developing state-of-the-art pelvic floor exercise system PeriCoach. The PeriCoach is a device expertly designed by women for women, having been developed by a female biomedical engineer.

Read about their work.

June 2019.

Spinifex was purchased by Novartis in a deal worth up to AU$1 billion, including an upfront cash consideration of US$200 million plus undisclosed clinical development and regulatory milestone payments. A pioneer in the development of new treatments for chronic pain, a debilitating and often poorly treated condition affecting millions of patients worldwide, Spinifex was also the recipient of the prestigious Johnson & Johnson Innovation 2015 Industry Excellence Award for Company of the Year.

Head lice treatment company Hatchtech signed a licensing deal in late 2016 worth up to AU$279 million with New York-listed Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, which included up to $85 million in pre-commercialisation payments as well as almost $200 million in sales-based milestone payments. Hatchtech was originally seed-funded by Uniseed, OneVentures, GBS Ventures and Blue Sky.

In the wake of a promising new cancer treatment, the Cancer Therapeutics CRC (CTx) is at the centre of a deal worth up to $730 million with US pharmaceutical company Merck. CTx is a collaborative partnership of leading medical research institutes, universities and biotechnology companies that translate Australia’s research discoveries into cancer treatments for clinical development.

Medical device company Avita was awarded a contract with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), worth up to US$53.9 million. With strong capabilities in treatment for wounds and skin defects, this contract will support Avita’s clinical development of its ReCell® Autologous Cell Harvesting Device.

Starpharma and AstraZeneca signed a licensing deal worth up to $AU650 million, including $AU2.9 million upon signing the agreement in 2015. The partnership between the two companies will help develop and commercialise Starpharma’s dendrimer technology, which has been shown to demonstrate more effective targeting of cancer cells in early trials. The partnership between the two companies has remained strong since the initial agreement, with Starpharma and AstraZeneca entering into a new agreement the following year, which involves a DEP drug delivery program that aims to improve the performance of pharmaceuticals.

Fibrotech was acquired by Shire in a record sale for a phase I Australian biotechnology company, worth $US75 million in upfront payments and $US600 million in undisclosed milestones. Fibrotech developed novel drug candidates to treat fibrosis prevalent in chronic kidney disease, chronic heart failure, pulmonary fibrosis and arthritis.

Australian drug delivery company Suda signed an agreement with Chinese pharmaceutical company Eddingpharm. As part of the agreement, Eddinpharm will develop and commercialise Suda’s product ZolpiMist in China, which will help address the significant unmet of insomnia patients.

Griffith University’s Institute for Glycomics, based in Australia, signed an agreement with China’s Olymvax Biopharmaceuticals to discover, develop and commercalise vaccine technology exclusively for Greater China. The vaccine is needle-free and targets the cause of strep throat and rheumatic heart disease.

Chinese genome sequencing company BGI, one of the largest companies in the world of its kind, partnered with Queensland’s QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute. BGI will use the Institute as headquarters for its work in the Asia-Pacific region. This partnership offers benefits to both of the organisations, as each is working on projects that complement each other in the field of clinical genomics and personalised medicine.