BMTH News: Further boost for Australian Medtech Research Commercialisation : MTPConnect

12 May 2022

MTPConnect today announced nearly $900,000 in funding for three important medical technology projects in Victoria and Western Australia.

The funding comes from the fourth round of the BioMedTech Horizons (BMTH) program, an initiative of the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) delivered by MTPConnect.

MTPConnect CEO Stuart Dignam says the BMTH program is all about supporting the development of the Australian medical device sector.

“Targeted funding provided through our BMTH program addresses gaps in early biomedical and medical technology product development and this round focused on the further development of pre-commercial prototypes entering human clinical trials,” Mr Dignam said.

“From the three selected projects, patients in the future are set to benefit from improved outcomes when they are anaesthetised; better diagnosis, treatment and management of functional gastrointestinal disorders; and better predictive tests, diagnosis and treatment for diabetic kidney disease.

“The power of BMTH is that within a year these teams will take critical steps to further develop their medical technologies towards achieving commercialisation, including manufacture of devices for trial purposes and targeting regulatory approvals.

“The funding we’ve allocated to these projects has leveraged an additional $1.04 million in contributions from industry which means a total of $1.94 million is flowing into our healthtech sector,” Mr Dignam said.

Through realignment of some activities and budget, the BMTH program has been able to commit funding to support these additional projects as part of Round 4, which was originally announced in September 2021.

BMTH Round 4 recipients:

Atmo Biosciences Pty Ltd (VIC) $343,310 – Further development of the ‘Atmo Gas Capsule’ through clinical trials for better diagnosis and treatment of gastrointestinal disorders. The company was also awarded funding in Round 3 of the BMTH program.
Cortical Dynamics Ltd (WA) $137,000 – Further development of the ‘Brain Anaethesia Response Monitor’ (BARM) to optimise patient experience under anaesthesia and to implement brain data monitoring and feedback.
Proteomics International (ASX: PIQ) (WA) $413,516 – Further development of the patented PromarkerD test which predicts diabetic kidney disease (DKD) and establishing an onshore manufacturing capability.

Across four funding rounds, the BMTH program has now funded 49 projects.

Investments from the program are focused on supporting biomedical and medical technologies to develop from a proof-of-concept to a validated pre-commercial product that is attractive for private capital investment and commercialisation.