Sharing the risk pays off

23 March 2016

Melbourne start-up biotech company MecRx will receive $4 million from the Medical Research Commercialisation Fund (MRCF)* to advance a new technology platform for accelerating drug discovery. According to the CSIRO, this is a result of its creative risk-sharing agreement with the company, and a Victorian Government Innovation Voucher.

CSIRO will assist MecRx in validating the company's technology, after it has already shared R&D costs in return for a mixture of milestone payments and shares in MecRx.

To date, it has a 14.6% equity stake in the company.

MecRx and CSIRO have also joined with the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre to develop and test a promising drug lead for inhibiting the biological target cMyc – a key driver of destructive cell mutation in many cancers.

If successful, the drug could be tested in cancer patients within a few years.

*Established and managed by Brandon Capital Partners, the MRCF Collaboration brings together more than 50 of Australia’s leading medical research institutes and research hospitals, the Australian Government and the state governments of Victoria, New South Wales, Western Australia, Queensland and South Australia.
Story based on media release from the CSIRO.