Adelaide biotech company Ferronova has raised $8 million from investors topped up with a $3 million research grant from the federal government for its nanoparticle platform to help surgeons to locate and remove malignant cells in stomach and brain cancers. Irish healthtech venture Renew Pharmaceuticals led the raise, supported by existing backers Uniseed and Artesian… Read more »
Queensland biotechnology scale-up Microbio has raised $3.5 million as it looks to roll out its rapid bloodstream infection tests across international markets. Microbio CEO Paul Carboon said existing and new investors, including eminent scientist and Gardasil co-inventor Professor Ian Frazer, had shown strong support for the biotech as it gains regulatory approval in multiple countries… Read more »
The world is under growing pressure to find sustainable options to cut emissions or lessen the impacts of climate change. Technology entrepreneurs from around the globe claim to have the solutions – not just yet, but soon. The biotech sector in particular is now using climate change as an urgent argument for more government funding,… Read more »
A biotech startup using gene therapy to tackle neurodegenerative diseases such as Motor Neurone Disease (MND), epilepsy and dementia, has been spun out of Macquarie University with $2 million in Seed funding to launch. Celosia Therapeutics is Australia’s first gene therapy company and the result of two decades of research at the university. It is… Read more »
Deep tech biomedical research startup Inventia Life Science is building a new laboratory, R&D and manufacturing hub in Sydney with support from the NSW government. The biotech printing company will create more than 75 new jobs as it expands from 430 sq metres to around 1500sqm at what will also be Inventia’s Australian HQ in… Read more »
The battle for ASX-listed ResApp Health Ltd is over with pharmaceutical giant Pfizer acquiring the telehealth startup for $179 million. The deal went through this week, having started back in April this year when Pfizer initially offered $100 million – 11.5 cents a share – before increasing its bid to 20.8 cents. Shareholders approved the… Read more »
Biotech startup OccuRx has raised $16 million to fund clinical phase studies for its oral therapy to treat chronic kidney disease (CKD), a leading cause of death. The round was jointly led by Brandon BioCatalyst and Uniseed and also includes a $1.5 million grant from biomedical incubator CUREator. The funding will be used for a… Read more »
Queensland biotech startup Ellume Health, which last year won a $300 million US government contract to supply Covid home testing kits, has placed its Australian business in voluntary administration. FTI Consulting were appointed as administrators of Ellume Ltd on Thursday. In a statement from FTI, administrators John Park and Joanne Dunn said Ellume’s directors appointed… Read more »
WA mining billionaire Andrew Forrest has turned his investment attention to the health tech sector, with a new $250 million venture capital fund. The VC, Tenmile, is being backed by Tattarang, the Fortescue Metal Group founder’s private investment company. Tenmile will target startups focused on unmet medical needs that support sustainable and equitable healthcare, offering seed… Read more »
Brisbane startup Infensa Bioscience has raised $23 million to develop a potentially life-saving treatment using deadly spider venom to prevent the damage caused by heart attacks and stroke. The biotech venture, spun out of University of Queensland, uses a molecule in the venom of the K’gari (Fraser Island) funnel-web spider, as the possible drug solution,… Read more »
Healthcare superannuation fund HESTA has revealed that it chipped in $4.4 million to a $35 million Series B for Sydney biotech startup Inventia Life Science. The deal marks the first direct investment made by a super fund into an early-stage startup. The industry has previously tipped their cash into venture capital funds, with the VCs… Read more »
Biotech startup Ankere Therapeutics has raised $10 million in Seed capital to develop new therapies targeting inflammatory diseases, especially in the lungs. The funding round was co-led by IP Group and Brandon Capital, through Brandon BioCatalyst, and will support the company through its pre-clinical development and into clinical trials. Ankere, which has operations in both… Read more »
Melbourne-based biotech company Tessara Therapeutics has developed microscopic 3D models of healthy and diseased brain tissues that can be used by researchers to study and discover better, more effective drugs to treat neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and epilepsy. The ground-breaking technology has been called RealBrain, developed by a team of neuroscientists and biomaterials experts. Because… Read more »
Biotech scale-up Microbio is looking to raise capital following positive domestic pilot study results for its bloodstream infection (BSI) test ahead of taking it to market The Brisbane-based venture’s InfectID-BSI test has the potential for significant improvement in detecting bloodstream infection and sepsis, the world’s mostly deadly infection, with 11 million deaths annually. InfectID-BSI is an in… Read more »
The University of NSW entrepreneurship program, UNSW Founders, will launch a new venture-backed accelerator for deep tech startups focused on synthetic biology and biotech with support from the CSIRO’s VC arm, Main Sequence. SynBio 10x will run in conjunction with the RNA Institute and UNSW School of Biotechnology & Biomolecular Sciences. Main Sequence will invest $120,000… Read more »
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