MTPConnect, the Medical Technology, Biotechnology, and Pharmaceutical (MTP) Industry Growth Centre - has opened expressions of interest for government's $5 million BioMedTech Horizons program.
Assistant health minister, Dr David Gillespie, announced the funding on day one of the MTAA MedTech2017 conference.
The first $5 of the program will be followed by another $30 million over the next four years. It aims to increase the number of biotechnology and medical technology ideas reaching the consumer.
Grants of up to $3 million are now available to develop ideas in precision medicine, a new approach for disease treatment and prevention, and up to $2 million for ideas to bring 3D anatomical printing to everyday medical use.
“The BioMedTech Horizons program will provide funding essential to increase the number of biotechnology and medical technology innovations that can reach the proof-of-concept stage and obtain proof-of-concept status, overcoming the key barriers in significant areas of unmet clinical need," said Sue MacLeman, managing director and CEO of MTPConnect.
“Technology allows patients to hear, to walk, to see, to live or to have a quality of life that they otherwise would not have," said MTAA CEO Ian Burgess.
“MTAA welcomes the Government’s investment in this new Biotech Horizons program. Advances in healthcare and patient outcomes are simply not possible without our industry and continued innovation.
“This program could provide the necessary funds for the commercialisation of the next Cochlear implant or ResMed sleep apnea device.”