Nominations invited for 2013 Industry Excellence Awards

Janssen and AusBiotech are delighted to announce that the Janssen 2013 Industry Excellence Awards are now open for nominations. The awards, which have three categories, will be announced at AusBiotech 2013 in Brisbane on 30 October.

The Janssen 2013 Industry Excellence Awards will be awarded to individuals and organisations that have made a significant contribution to the biotechnology industry and, through their leadership, continue to make a difference to the growth of the bio-economy.

The three categories now open for nominations are:

• Industry Leadership Award: This award seeks candidates who have already made a significant difference to the industry and have an outstanding commitment to life sciences/biotechnology that often goes beyond the ‘job description’. Candidates will be known for their passion, enthusiasm and commitment to the industry in Australia.
• Australian Company of the Year Award: The Australian Company of the Year will be awarded to a company that has demonstrated significant achievement/s and may include any company working in biotechnology or life sciences, including but not limited to the medical diagnostics or devices, pharmaceutical and agricultural biotechnology sectors. Criteria for companies may include deals done, product pipeline, IP, company strategy and/or revenue.
• Australian Emerging Company of the Year Award: This award will be based on the same criteria as above, but be specific to companies under five years of age.

The three recipients from 2012 were inspiring examples of what can be achieved when scientific innovation is accompanied by the business acumen needed to bring novel medicines, medical devices and other new technologies to key markets.

In 2012, Starpharma was named Company of the Year and Vaxxas was awarded Emerging Company of the Year. Their endeavours show huge potential to improve the lives of people around the globe. The outstanding work of the late Dr Andrew Baker was recognised with the Industry Leadership Award.

Melbourne-based Starpharma is an ASX-listed biotechnology company. Starpharma’s dendrimer technology (a nanotechnology) has been developed in Australia. The broad applicability of this technology has opened up multiple product opportunities in pharmaceutical, drug delivery and agrochemicals. Starpharma’s lead product is VivaGel, the most advanced microbicide under development to treat a range of women’s health ailments.

Brisbane-based Vaxxas is a privately held Australian biotechnology company focused on enhancing the performance of existing and next-generation vaccines with its proprietary Nanopatch technology platform. Application of the Nanopatch to the skin is pain free and rapidly delivers the vaccine to the abundant immune cell population immediately below the skin surface.

Dr Andrew Baker was a 28-year veteran of the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. He helped to found several listed Australian companies, assisting them with commercial growth and product development.

For details about how to nominate an inspiring biotech leader, please visit http://ausbiotechnc.org/industry-excellence-awards. For more information, contact Kirsty Whitehead at kwhitehead@ausbiotech.org.