BioCurate launches first round of project investments
Author
Date
BioCurate
July 31, 2018
BioCurate Pty Ltd has achieved an important milestone with investments in six early drug discovery projects from research groups at The University of Melbourne and Monash University announced today. These projects represent the first tranche of investments for BioCurate.
BioCurate’s CEO, Dr Glenn Begley said “I am delighted that BioCurate has taken this important next step. We are building on the combined research strength of these two outstanding Australian universities, accelerating and strategically guiding these high value projects to give them the best possible chance of commercial and clinical success.”
All of the projects have compelling clinical and commercial reasons to support their early investment and development. Each addresses an important unmet clinical need, adopts a novel approach and targets potential global markets.
BioCurate is pleased to have formally commenced its core business of targeting the critical early phases of drug development. The Company will take on several more projects throughout 2018 and will work across different therapeutic areas and modalities including small molecules, biologics and antibodies. Collaboration, cooperation and commercial rigour to achieve scale at the international level, will be the hallmarks of the Company’s approach
The development plan for each project identifies key ‘Go/No-Go’ gates with an early and consistent focus on ensuring the essential commercial imperatives of reproducible data and a clear intellectual property position.
Working closely and collaboratively with each of the project’s investigators and University colleagues, BioCurate is providing ‘on the ground’ expertise and mentoring in drug development and commercialisation, funding and project management. This, coupled with BioCurate’s extensive international industry experience in drug development and biopharmaceutical and investment networks, will boost the opportunity for these, and future, projects to undergo successful translation.
The successful investigator’s and their inaugural projects to enter BioCurate’s project pipeline are:
- Dr Glen Carter and Prof Jonathan Baell – A novel class of antibiotics
- Dr Natalie Borg and Prof David Jans – A new target for both viral infection and cancer
- Profs Charles Mackay, Dr Remy Roberts and Prof Mark Sleeman – A novel therapeutic for cancer
- Prof Rob Widdop, Prof Mibel Aguilar and Dr Mark Del Borgo – Anti-fibrotic therapy
- Prof Ray Norton – A new treatment for autoimmune diseases
- Dr Sheena McGowan and Prof Peter Scammells – Novel therapeutics for infection and cancer
About BioCurate Pty Ltd
BioCurate is a joint venture of the University of Melbourne and Monash University, supported by the Victorian State Government. Announced in June 2016, its founding universities are placed in the world’s top ten in the therapeutic areas of immunology, oncology, paediatrics, neurosciences, and infectious diseases.
BioCurate aims to be a recognised global leader in the translation of basic medical research into human therapeutics.
The Company offers a new model, designed to address the key challenges in early stage drug development, and will focus on those stages of development before a project is attractive to the biomedical industry or venture capital funds. Its purpose is to increase the number, quality and rate of translation of new drug discoveries into medically sound and commercially attractive, investable projects.
BioCurate is also committed to helping develop the broader ecosystem and growing the local pipeline of high quality preclinical candidates for the bio-pharmaceutical industry. Increasing the number of ‘investment-ready’ projects will grow the Victorian and Australian biotech sector by attracting global interest in partnering and investment
BioCurate is owned jointly by the Universities and is independently governed and operated with the Hon John Brumby AO as Chair and Dr C.Glenn Begley as CEO.
Quotes from Monash University and the University of Melbourne:
Monash University’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Enterprise), Ken Sloan, welcomed the announcement. “BioCurate’s critical role as a catalyst across Universities, government and industry helps to accelerate improvements to the health of the community” Mr Sloan said. “We are delighted therefore to see the first cohort of research projects enter BioCurate’s pipeline for investment and development.”
Doron Ben-Meir, Vice-Principal (Enterprise) at the University of Melbourne, said “The unprecedented vision of BioCurate – to combine seasoned pharmaceutical industry professionals with our world class research substrate – is realising its first steps. It’s very exciting to see the first cohort of projects. We look forward to their continued development and to seeing many more promising candidates emerge from our growing pipeline of exceptional research.”
Quote from the Victorian Government Minister for Innovation and the Digital Economy, Philip Dalidakis:
Minster for Innovation and the Digital Economy Philip Dalidakis said “The Victorian Government is proud to support the early-stage drug development research lead by Melbourne and Monash Universities, whose combined expertise in the areas of pharmacology, immunology, neurosciences, and cardiology see them ranked among the world’s best. Congratulations to the successful researchers, whose projects have the potential to cure terrible diseases and improve patient care both across Victoria and around the world.”
ENDS
For more information on BioCurate: www.biocurate.com
Dr Begley is available for interviews.
Media contacts
Linda Peterson
Chief Operating Officer and Company Secretary
Tel: +61 419 320 435
E: l.peterson@biocurate.com
Twitter: @biocurate
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/company/biocurate/
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BioCurate’s critical role as a catalyst across Universities, government and industry helps to accelerate improvements to the health of the community.
