New Report: ANDHealth Accelerator Cracks Australia’s Commercialisation Code
14 February 2024
Pictured L-R: ANDHealth Chair Gavin Fox-Smith, ANDHealth CEO Bronwyn Le Grice, The Hon Ged Kearney MP, L.E.K Consulting Managing Partner Stephanie Newey and MTPConnect CEO Stuart Dignam at Parliament House for the report launch.
An independent report into Australian digital health commercialisation programs has highlighted the considerable impact of ANDHealth on core economic metrics when benchmarked against comparable accelerators in general technology, deep technology, and health technology.
Published by global independent consulting firm L.E.K. Consulting, the ‘Economic impact assessment of ANDHealth+ and Masterclass: ACCELERATE programs’ report found that for every $1 invested into ANDHealth’s flagship accelerator, ANDHealth+, $19.70 in capital is raised and $4.2 in gross economic value is delivered by digital health SMEs. For every $1 million invested, 56 jobs are created.
Significantly, SMEs participating in ANDHealth+ raise on average $1.1 million in capital after just six months – approximately double the $0.6 million in capital raised by other digital health SMEs.
The report was launched today by the Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care The Hon. Ged Kearney MP at a special event at Parliament House in Canberra. The ANDHealth+ and Masterclass: ACCELERATE (Masterclass) programs are funded by the Australian Government’s Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF).
L.E.K. Consulting Australia Managing Partner Ms Stephanie Newey said, “Digital health is an increasingly important contributor to health and economic outcomes in Australia, but historically, the sector has faced commercialisation hurdles due to limited access to specialised knowledge and capital.
“By delivering a proven accelerator model that has resulted in a cumulative total of $161.8 million in capital raised, 512 new jobs created, 1 million patients reached, and 30 product launches internationally by Australian companies, the ANDHealth model demonstrates that it can solve the commercialisation challenge plaguing Australia.”
The International Institute for Management Development’s (IMD) World Competitiveness report ranks Australia the third worst of 64 countries for entrepreneurship, measured by onshore capacity to successfully export ideas and innovations.
Launched in 2017, the ANDHealth+ and Masterclass programs provide Australian digital health start-ups with access to non-dilutive investment, alongside highly specialised industry mentoring and support, to enable companies to successfully navigate critical clinical and commercial milestones resulting in significant value creation and growth.
ANDHealth CEO and Managing Director Ms Bronwyn Le Grice said, “A distinctive capability of digital health SMEs is their ability to grow locally and scale globally, servicing global patient populations while remaining headquartered here in Australia. This creates local, highly skilled, deep technology jobs, has the potential to deliver significant economic growth and export impact and improve health outcomes for all Australians.”
The report found that 4.1 international market launches are achieved for every $1M invested into ANDHealth+, 87 patients are positively impacted for every $1k invested, and 9 clinical trials are pursued for every $1M invested. This is especially significant given digital health SMEs typically achieve an average of 0.05 clinical trials for every $1M invested.
“MRFF investment into digital health has delivered returns of millions in capital and hundreds of jobs created. With the right investment and regulatory incentives supporting onshore digital health innovations, there is potential for Australia to realise even greater health and economic gains,” said Ms Le Grice.
“Most importantly, we have demonstrated that our cooperative commercialisation model, led by industry for industry, can deliver transformative commercialisation outcomes. This model could easily be deployed in other sectors, which would have immeasurable impact on our future prosperity at a time in which we are struggling with overall declines in productivity across the economy,” Ms Le Grice concluded.
MTPConnect was delighted to support the development of the report, and CEO Stuart Dignam joined ANDHealth CEO Ms Le Grice at Parliament House to speak about the importance of health innovation accelerator programs in driving jobs and growth in Australia.
"This is an excellent economic report demonstrating the real world impact and return on investment in supporting digital health SMEs to grow and scale, and impact patients", said Stuart Dignam.
MTPConnect has been supporting ANDHealth's digital health programs since 2017 when it backed the inaugural ANDHealth+ program, and continued via the REDI initiative.
About ANDHealth+
ANDHealth+ is Australia’s most successful digital and connected health commercialisation program, delivering project funding and highly specialised support to homegrown digital health SMEs with high-growth potential. $3.25M from the Australian Government’s Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) is invested annually in high-growth potential digital health companies through ANDHealth+. With a combined $24 million in funding - $19.75 million from the MRFF, $3.28 million from industry contributors and $900k from MTPConnect, as of 30 June 2023, ANDHealth+ had supported, and continues to support, 19 digital health SMEs across four cohorts. This funding will also see ANDHealth support a further two cohorts over the coming years. Current and former ANDHealth+ companies have collectively raised $144.8m in capital, created 412 jobs and impacted nearly 642,000 patients.
About Masterclass
Masterclass program targets companies which are at an earlier stage in their commercialisation journey. The Masterclass program provides highly focused educational support and access to national and international industry leaders.
Masterclass received funding from the MTPConnect Researcher Exchange and Development within Industry Initiative (REDI), which is funded by the MRFF. This, combined with the Masterclass establishment funding provided by MTPConnect in 2018, has allowed ANDHealth to deliver Masterclass to 184 attendees across four years. In total, 49 of its digital health participants have raised $17 million, commenced 35 pilots, research projects or clinical trials, served 377,185 patients and created 100 new full time equivalent (FTE) jobs.