MRCF/Aust Govt $40 million investment collaboration

There will be a $40 million investment collaboration between the Australian Government and the Medical Research Commercialisation Fund (MRCF) that promises to promote medical innovations through the difficult early stages of commercialisation.

Under the latest funding, the Australian Government has committed $20 million to the MRCF under its Innovation Investment Fund program, with a similar sum pledged by the fund’s principal founding investors, Statewide Superannuation and Westscheme.

The MRCF IIF fund will provide ‘seed funding’ to companies set up to commercialise innovations from its member institutes, together with additional funding for several more advanced projects that have been supported by the MRCF since 2008.

Two of these - a data logging device for monitoring the progress and treatment of Parkinson’s Disease, and a heart catheter that isolates the contrast agents used in routine cardiac imaging, stopping them from reaching the kidney where they are toxic - are likely to reach the market as early as next year.

“This funding is a tremendous boost for the MRCF collaboration and ensures that we can continue to support the pioneering work of Australia’s medical researchers while reaping significant rewards for our research Members, our investors and the health of the world at large,” said Dr Chris Nave, Principal Executive of the MRCF.

“Although our medical research institutes are highly regarded internationally for their infrastructure and expertise, there have been no early-stage investment funds dedicated to helping these medical research institutes or research hospitals translate medical discoveries from the laboratory bench to the bedside. The goal of the MRCF is to fill this glaring gap in biomedical start-up and early commercialisation funding.”

The MRCF has a collaborative structure, through which each partner commits its specific expertise to the process of identifying and securing funding for innovations within Australia’s life science industry.

The 29 member institutes, which include two state health departments, provide the fund’s investors with a ‘first right of review’ of all the investment opportunities, while the investors provide a source of investment capital to develop those that show promise.

Experienced representatives from each institute undertake a ‘peer review’ of nominated projects through an Investment Review Committee, which then passes the most promising opportunities to the fund’s manager, Brandon Capital Partners, to complete full due diligence investigations.

Of about 150 projects proposed to the MRCF, 56 have made it to the Investment Review Committee, with so far only eight being approved for funding. Two further investments are expected to be finalised before the end of this year.

The MRCF Trustee Board Chairman, former Victorian Treasurer Hon Alan Stockdale, said the funding would not only help the fund drive approved projects closer to commercialisation, but would make them more appealing to other investors interested in the fertile opportunities presented by Australia’s medical research sector.

“This is a clear endorsement of both the calibre of the partners in the MRCF collaboration and the unique ‘win-win’ structure of our investment model and we hope this will be a catalyst for raising further investment capital in the future,” Stockdale said.