Commercial breaks

Blockbuster drug ... Queensland Deputy Premier, Anna Bligh, and Professor Frazer at the launch of Gardasil®

UQ is among Australia's top three universities for start-up companies, income generated from licences to industry and commercialisation staff.

According to David Henderson, Managing Director of UniQuest Pty Ltd – the University’s main commercialisation company – UQ’s commercialisation performance places it in the top 10 percent of universities worldwide.

“Our research and commercialisation capacity was highlighted with the 2006 release of the world’s first cervical cancer vaccine, Gardasil®, which was developed at UQ,” he said. “Mass vaccinations with Gardasil® began in Australia and the USA in 2007, and it has now been approved for sale in more than 70 countries. It is Australia’s first blockbuster drug with commercial returns flowing back into the country.”

All three University commercialisation bodies experienced major developments in 2007.

UniQuest took another new step for the University with the establishment of Leximancer, the first start-up company from the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences. The Leximancer program automatically identifies key themes, concepts and ideas from unstructured text with little or no guidance. The innovative concept map lets users interact with the analysis – navigating the true meaning of text.

JKTech, the technology transfer company for the Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre (JKMRC) at the University’s experimental mine at Indooroopilly, and IMBcom, which focuses on commercialisation for the Institute of Molecular Bioscience, also made significant gains this year.

JKTech has mineral-processing projects with large mining companies, such as BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Anglo Platinum, and Newmont, and carries out business in almost 30 countries. One of the projects being undertaken for BHP Billiton is a multi-million-dollar contract for mineral analysis for the Olympic Dam expansion project in South Australia.

Similarly, IMBcom has established a portfolio of alliances with international pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer, Orico and Amgen, which have generated millions of dollars in revenue.

Other major commercialisation developments:

UniQuest:
• Start-up company, QRxPharma, successfully floated on the Australian Stock Exchange in June this year – Australia’s largest biotechnology float at $150 million, which included $50 million of capital raised.
• $600,000 secured in funds to develop a vaccine to protect against a respiratory illness common in infants.
• Strengthened relationship with natural products synthesis group, Ecobiotics, with a three-year, $2.5 million research contract.
• Start-up company, Hydrexia Pty Ltd, gained an exclusive technology licence that could make hydrogen a viable energy source.
• Irish company, Independent News and Media, invested in Imprezzeo, an IT start-up formed around UQ and University of Wollongong (UOW) technology to develop a new type of search engine. The deal was UniQuest’s second-largest, first-round investment into a start-up and highlighted the strength of its partnership with UOW.
• Pepfactants®, a start-up company with unique synthetic peptide surfactants, secured its first round of investment.

JK Tech:
• Won the Premier of Queensland’s 2006 Export Award in the Small to Medium Manufacturer category and was a finalist in the Premier of Queensland’s 2006 Smart Award in the Small to Medium Manufacturer or Mining category.
• Sold the Intellectual Property associated with the JKMetAccount software solution to Mincom Ltd, broadening the product’s technical mining platform and enhancing its global reach.
• Provided funding for several PhD projects at the JKMRC.

IMBcom:
• Spin-out company, Protagonist Ltd, received US$9 million and established a US-based parent company.
• Established the Queensland Facility of Advanced Bioinformatics (QFAB), which will database and store biological information.
• Professor Melissa Little awarded $2 million from the Smart State Innovation Project Fund for research into renal repair.

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