The Medical Research Future Fund will invest $47 million in diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
The Australian Government awarded the funds to a program run by MTPConnect to accelerate research into preventing, diagnosing and treating the conditions.
According to Industry, Science and Technology Minister Karen Andrews, the investment, which is part of the MRFF’s $260 million Preventive and Public Health Research Initiative, will boost the economic potential of Australia’s med tech sector.
“A key focus of this accelerator will be on bringing new and innovative drugs and devices to market which can help Australians but also be sold to the world”, she said in a statement.
The program will bring together industry, researchers, clinical organisations, businesses and philanthropists, with its independent board including:
Professor John Shine (University of New South Wales) - co-chair; biochemist and molecular biologist, president of the Australian Academy of Science; ;
Professor Ian Frazer (University of Queensland) - co-chair; clinical immunologist, co-inventor of the HPV vaccine;
Rebecca Davies - lived experience of diabetes and heart disease as parent and wife; member of the Consumer and Community Health Innovations Advisory Committee; director, Chris O’Brien Lifehouse;;
Judi Moylan - former Australian Government minister; former chair, Diabetes Australia; chair of NHMRC Community and Consumer Committee;
Adjunct Professor John Kelly, chief executive officer, Heart Foundation of Australia;
Professor James Best, dean, Lee Kong Chain School of Medicine; director, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) Australia;;
Mike Wilson - chief executive officer, JDRF Australia;
Professor Rachel Huxley (Deakin University), academic, researcher and epidemiologist focusing on chronic disease; and
Yasser El-Ansary - chief executive, Australian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association.
