The six, from three state, are: Aleris Therapeutics (Vic), Frontier Inflammasome Therapeutics (Qld), Luma Bio (Vic), Navier Medical (WA), Neurotologix (WA) and WeGuide (Vic). They span inflammatory disease, cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurological disorders and AI-enabled digital health.
CUREator+, run by Brandon BioCatalyst in partnership with ANDHealth, offers non-dilutive capital, commercialisation support and industry network access, designed to accelerate the development of therapeutics, medical devices and digital health innovations.
CUREator program head Dr Amanda Vrselja said Australia produces outstanding medical research, but too many promising discoveries struggle to access the expertise, capital and commercial support needed to reach patients.
“CUREator+ is designed to change that. By combining milestone-based funding with experienced commercialisation support, we’re enabling founders to build investable companies capable of delivering global healthcare impact from Australian innovation,” she said
Navier Medical is focused on reducing the impact of cardiovascular (heart) disease. CEO Sander Bangma said the program will help with prospective clinical trial, platform development and getting the startup to commercial readiness.
“Preventing heart attacks starts with seeing the disease earlier, ” he said.
“Our Navier Heart platform turns routine CT scans into a powerful tool for early detection and personalised treatment of cardiovascular disease, by revealing the high-risk vessels hiding in plain sight.”
Here’s who does what and their funding.
Aleris Therapeutics is developing a novel therapy for inflammatory diseases. Frontier Inflammasome Therapeutics is developing first-in-class therapies for inflammatory diseases. Luma Bio is developing peptide-based radiopharmaceuticals for targeted cancer imaging and treatment.
The three startups scored $2.5 million each,
Navier Medical is developing AI-enabled cardiac CT risk markers to improve prediction and prevention of heart attacks and received $2,130,609.
Neurotologix is commercialising an integrated platform for the objective assessment of vertigo and dizziness and was awarded $1,95 million.
WeGuide is developing an AI-powered platform to accelerate the development and commercialisation of digital biomarkers using wearable, clinical and patient-generated health data. It received $1,945,111.
