Five medtech manufacturers awarded total of $36 million in federal grants

Five medical products companies have been awarded a total of $36 million in federal grants, including a developer of rapid Covid-19 tests and a maker of radiopharmaceuticals for disease diagnosis.

The announcement on Thursday featured grant funding under the translation and integration streams of the Modern Manufacturing Initiative of:

• $3 million to Avicena, to scale up manufacturing of its rapid Covid-19 screening system, which produce a result in 35 minutes and can be deployed at border checkpoints and airports;
• $20 million to Noumed towards construction of an $85 million prescription and over-the-counter medication factory;
• $2.5 million to Cyclowest to scale up its facility with “a state-of-the-art cyclotron, which produces therapy radiopharmaceuticals that contribute to helping clinicians diagnose medical conditions, including cancer”;
• $4.4 million to Vaxxas to scale production of its needle-free vaccination delivery system (pictured); and
• $6.3 million to GBAS (APAC) to build a new medical device manufacturing facility to enable the commercialisation of technology for diagnostic tests.

Industry minister Christian Porter said in a statement that Noumed’s project in South Australia would “create hundreds of opportunities for local workers,” and that products like Avicena’s “which has broader infectious disease testing applications beyond COVID-19, also have the potential to create significant export earnings.”

The funding tranche is the second announced under the MMI’s translation and integration streams, following grants for space sector projects announced on Tuesday. 

Grants for the remaining four “National Manufacturing Priority” sectors — Resources Technology and Critical Minerals Processing, Food and Beverage, Recycling and Clean Energy, and Defence — “will follow soon.”

Picture: Vaxxas

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