An article in The Australian today detailed an announcement from the federal government that it would establish a $250 million fund to invest in biomedicines.
The biomedical translation fund will be launched next year and will be financed by taking money from one of the Abbott government’s signature budget measures, the $20 billion Medical Research Future Fund, over the next two years.
Health Minister Sussan Ley said $250 million which had originally been earmarked for the Medical Research Future Fund would be spent on turning health and medical research into commercial reality.
“This fund will provide a huge impetus to ensure that the creative and excellent research work by Australia’s biomedical sector is retained in Australia to benefit Australians and our economy,” Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Christopher Pyne said.
“Too often researchers find raising funds for the early stages of commercialisation too hard and take their innovations overseas.
“This fund will remove the bottleneck between getting research out of the laboratory and into the market place.”
The Bionics Institute in Melbourne, whose research helps improve the performance of the Cochlear implant, is hoping to use some of the money to take its bionic eye through to commercial production and continue to develop its neurobionics devices tha
You can read the official government press release here:
