SPEAKERS
Dr Megan Robertson, Peter Lewis, Andre La Gershe
Welcome to Country 00:00
We acknowledge the traditional Aboriginal owners of country throughout Victoria, Australia, and their ongoing connection to this land. We pay our respects to their culture, and their Elders past, present, and future.
Dr Megan Robertson 00:22
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Global Victoria Healthtech Talks, a show that's about healthtech business and opportunities in Melbourne and across Victoria in Australia. Victoria has a unique and globally competitive healthtech ecosystem. That thriving and open for business in this podcast series will provide insights into the strengths within our ecosystem that are attracting global attention. Want to explore the expertise, engage with experts, identify markets or learn about how you can team up with top Aussie healthtech companies, then you're in the right place. I'm your host, Dr. Megan Robertson, and today on global Victoria Healthtech Talks. We're covering the fascinating topic of cardiovascular health. That's heart health research and development.
Dr Megan Robertson 01:20
I have two wonderful guests today that I'm excited to introduce to you. First up is Peter Lewis, Executive Vice President of Corporate Development at Hydrix, a local product development company. My second guest is cardiologist Associate Professor Andre La Gershe, Head of Sports Cardiology and Clinical Research Domain at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute and a practicing Cardiologist at St. Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne. My guests today will share their insights and perspectives on the sector, and explain the strengths and strong collaborative capacity of cardiovascular health in Victoria, Australia.
Dr Megan Robertson 02:02
First up today is Peter Lewis. Hi, Peter.
Peter Lewis 02:05
Hi, Megan, how are you?
Dr Megan Robertson 02:06
Good. Thank you.
Dr Megan Robertson 02:07
Peter is the Executive Vice President of Corporate Development at Hydrix. With over 30 years of experience in international business development across a variety of roles, including research and development, finance, marketing, trade and sales, Peter has a comprehensive understanding of the Victorian cardiovascular diagnostics and therapeutics product development market. In 2015, Peter was appointed a member of the Order of Australia for significant service to international trade, and to the Australian biotechnology and information technology industries. Thanks for joining me, Peter.
Peter Lewis 02:46
Thanks, Megan. And hi, listeners. It's great to be here.
Dr Megan Robertson 02:49
So let's start with the basics. Hydrix was established in 2002 and has evolved its business over the past 20 years. Tell us what does Hydrix business do in the field of cardiovascular health R&D?
Peter Lewis 03:04
We're a new product development company. So what that means is we work with researchers, universities and companies we turn their IP benchtop IP into commercial ready products. So under one roof here in Melbourne, we have engineers designers across software, mechanical design, electronics, regulatory, industrial design, and so on, who work with our clients and researchers very closely and actually turn those ideas that IP design products, get them regulated and proven actually turned out to manufacturers who in effect, sort of as an American colleagues will say "soup to nuts" or "bench to bedside" under one roof in Melbourne.
Welcome to Country 03:39
So in the R&D sector, Melbourne is often called a one-stop-shop. Tell us about your experience with end to end solutions in Melbourne.
Peter Lewis 03:48
Of course, Melbourne and Victoria used to be a manufacturing hub or still as a manufacturing hub for Australia. And over the last century or so. You've got all these manufacturing support industries originally to support the car industry textiles, clothing, footwear, and over the last 20 years we've pivoted towards medical technology and vascular cardiovascular technologies. So here in Melbourne, we've got things such as a synchrotron to actually test materials, Centre for Nanofabrication. We've got engineered plastics providers, we've got people who could supply wiring looms, circuit boards, electronic components, and a number of manufacturers as well too, as well as a very robust Clinical Trials Network and a prototyping group. So they're all the aspects you'd actually need to sort of design, develop and actually get a device trialed and regulated into humans.
Welcome to Country 04:34
So whilst Victoria started as a traditional manufacturing hub, it's now really moved into high quality, high end technical manufacturing. And that also has supported a very strong device design sector. Now, what makes it attractive for global companies to come to Victoria and Melbourne and work with companies like yours?
Peter Lewis 04:56
Well I think you hit it on the head there on the way through your question because we have not only a great research infrastructure, we have great supply chain infrastructure that the manufacturers, the plastics, providers, circuit board providers, and you've got the people like ourselves and our competitors, that design for global markets. So Hydrix example generates more than 50% of its revenue from international, particularly in European North American companies, our clients overseas, so they're coming to us because of the education, because of the know how, because of that, we're English speaking, but also because a whole support infrastructure of supply chain, and on top of that, we have the R&D tax concession of 43.5%. What that means is that foreign companies who do eligible R&D in Australia with Hydrix, or others are eligible to get a check for up to 43.5% of the value of that R&D that's done. So that actually makes it quite economical.
Dr Megan Robertson 05:46
So the R&D Tax Incentive in Australia really is world's best and, in contrast to others, it also includes clinical trial work.
Peter Lewis 05:56
Yes, that's right. So I think Melbourne, bats above its weight in terms of attracting clinical trial work in Australia as well, too.
Dr Megan Robertson 06:04
So Peter, what you're describing is really a world class environment. And I know that Melbourne is often seen as being very similar to Boston and other internationally recognised, research testbeds. How do your clients approach that?
Peter Lewis 06:19
Well we've got a very strong IP environment here intellectual property protection with most of the major firms here. So there's a very robust portfolio of capability around that that's globally respected as well, too. We've got Westminster legal system, which means that our clients are all protected as well, too, so standard terms and contracts. So there's a lot of certainty when they deal with us. Of course, the other thing is that with communication being the way it is, particularly as COVID, with online zoom conferences and alike, we can talk with our clients in the morning, work during the day, then hand off the work to the clients in the afternoon. So it actually getting 24 by seven or 24 by five followed us some sort of development, which accelerates development timeframes as well.
Dr Megan Robertson 07:01
So you've done the development, how about translation in the health sector? How do you find as an industry body, how do you find dealing with our health sector in Victoria?
Peter Lewis 07:14
Look, it's it's a seamless, it works really, really well. We have close relationships with the hospitals and the research institutes in Victoria. We're often called have a bit of a conversation around whether IP is actually translatable, asking about the product visioning What should look like? How should go to market? How should manifested itself in terms of a product or devices or something similar? There's a very easy, free flow, communication between the research and sort of the development community and in Melbourne, and there's also very attractive to a lot of international companies have come on down to take advantage of it.
Dr Megan Robertson 07:45
I suppose one of the other highlights is that the data in Australia that you generate is well recognised in the FDA and the EMA. In fact, if we go back four years ago, 60% of the drugs approved by the FDA had Australian data in their portfolio, and it's very similar around devices.
Peter Lewis 08:05
You know, Australia has certainly seen as a source of quality clinical trials and that sort of that data absolutely around the world and respected completely.
Welcome to Country 08:14
Thanks so much, Peter. We'll catch up with you later for the panel discussion.
Peter Lewis 08:18
Thank you, Megan.
Dr Megan Robertson 08:22
More than 1/3 of Australian clinical trials activity takes place in Victoria. Pharmaceutical and biotech companies across the globe recognise Australia's impressive capability and many have chosen to undertake trials here in Melbourne and across Victoria.
Welcome to Country 08:53
I now have the pleasure of welcoming Associate Professor Andre La Gershe, Head of Sports Cardiology and Clinical Research Domain at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute. Andre's clinical studies investigate the interaction between exercise and heart function. Andre has developed innovative ways to improve cardiac imaging and has hundreds of peer reviewed research publications. In his spare time, Andre also works as a cardiologist at St. Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne, as well as providing cardiology services through the Baker Institute's specialist clinics. Hi, Andre. Thanks for making time for us today.
Andre La Gershe 09:34
Hi, Megan. Pleasure to be here.
Dr Megan Robertson 09:37
So, Andre, the Baker Institute was founded almost 100 years ago, and then boosted by the Heart Foundation in the late 1950s. So can you tell our listeners, what is the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute and what do you do there?
Andre La Gershe 09:54
So the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute we often just call it the Baker Institute is an MRI or Medical Research Institute, which is something a bit unique to the Australian landscape, in that we have a lot of medical research institutes. They're basically community driven, often narrow focused institutes. So for example, as the name suggests, our institute is based around cardiovascular research and research into diabetes. There's other MRIs that look into cancer or into immunology or into neurological conditions. But it's an interesting environment to be in because you can walk across the corridors. We have basic scientists, translational scientists, applied scientists, all within the same sort of walls that all with a similar, but at the same time broad, research agenda. What I do at the Baker Institute is, is based around how exercise interacts with the heart. And we look at everything from the sickest heart failure patients through to elite athletes, and we look at with a real emphasis on imaging, so looking at the heart function and also during exercise.
Dr Megan Robertson 11:06
Thanks, Andre. So Melbourne has a strong clinical cardiovascular health R&D sector. How collaborative is it? And how do you work with universities and MRIs and, and the health sector?
Andre La Gershe 11:19
Yeah, so it's extremely collaborative. I had some research experience for five years in Belgium. And there were some real strengths of that system with a university and hospital interaction. But it tended to be more insular in Melbourne, we do have the kind of flexibility of interaction between universities medical research institutes, both the private and public health system. We, for example, our own research agenda, we collaborate with the Children's Hospital, Peter McCallum, Cabrini Private Hospital, with Melbourne University, Monash University, really, a Deakin University, there's it's extremely collaborative, I would say that is one of the biggest strengths of working in Victoria.
Dr Megan Robertson 12:06
So there are some benefits to being at the other end of the earth, in that we tend to have a very strong community. And although there's healthy competition, what you're describing is really strong collaborative links. And I take it that, you know, most of the people in your sector fairly well,
Andre La Gershe 12:23
Yeah, and we also have tentacles, you know, we have very strong local links, but also collaborate widely, internationally, as well. As Head of Sports Cardiology, you'll have to forgive all my sporting analogies, but I often think about research here as being a bit like a sporting camp. And so you've got a number of people competing locally, that brings out the best of everyone. And then therefore, competes is kind of number one on a world stage.
Dr Megan Robertson 12:51
So Melbourne also has a strong past history in medical device trials in the cardiovascular sector, particularly around early pacemaker development. Has that continued and what's happening in imaging and device trials in Melbourne?
Andre La Gershe 13:06
Yeah, absolutely. It's continued into to sort of segue on from Peter, one of the strengths in Victoria is our reputation and we've got a long reputation for doing clinical trials. And that's from early device, you know, a lot of the first-in-man work in cardiovascular stents in heart vessels, in artificial heart valves and stentable valves, through the pacemaker technology, as you as you mentioned, and then through to medications, and clinical trials, both early stage through the through to population based trials. We've got a rich history of doing those in Australia, and particularly in Melbourne.
Dr Megan Robertson 13:48
What about the community support for clinical trials? How do you find your patients feel about clinical trials?
Andre La Gershe 13:55
Yeah, so that's very interesting, because, again, coming from overseas, I had this idea that clinical research involved patients recruited from public hospitals. One of the real advantages we have here is that we attract patients from both the sort of public and private health system and those to work work extremely well. I find that patients are very engaged in the clinical research that we're doing.
Dr Megan Robertson 14:21
I think that's also only improved during COVID. One of the silver linings is that our community do understand the importance of clinical trials in moving our healthcare forward. So you also talked earlier about imaging. When we think about clinical trials, we often think about medication, its devices, its imaging, its combination products. Tell us about your work in imaging.
14:46
And also access to imaging so you know, we run a, in my unit run a magnetic resonance imaging suite for cardiovascular research. We're one of only a few within Australia, and that provides access and cost effective access to sort of state of the art measurements of heart function and structure. So for example, if you're running a trial on a high blood pressure medication, then the most accurate measures you can have for heart size and function can be done through magnetic resonance imaging, again, MRI don't get mixed up with earlier MRI. And, and that can be done more cost effectively in Australia, and interestingly, Melbourne more cost effectively than other parts of Australia, than just about anywhere in the world.
Welcome to Country 15:39
That brings us back to Melbourne really being Australia's hub of clinical research in the health and medical research sector. So the local state government has invested heavily in the Victorian Heart Hospital development. How's that progressing, Andre?
Andre La Gershe 15:55
It's progressing well. I understand that the building's online, it's due to open later this year and be sort of fully operational early 2023. It's going to be a combination of both state of the art clinical care and research and it really is also, as we mentioned before, in the collaboration sphere is going to be some of the glue that pulls us all together.
Dr Megan Robertson 16:20
Thanks, Andre.
Andre La Gershe 16:21
My pleasure, Megan,
Dr Megan Robertson 16:22
Stay with us. We'll be right back.
Dr Megan Robertson 16:28
Australia's Research and Development Tax Incentive provides up to a massive 43.5% cash refund, which is available to both local and international companies.
Dr Megan Robertson 16:47
We've heard a range of interesting things today. And I'd love to finish the podcast with a short panel segment with both of today's guests. Welcome back.
Peter Lewis 16:56
Thanks, Megan.
Andre La Gershe 16:57
Thanks, Megan.
Dr Megan Robertson 16:58
Andre, cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in Australia, especially in younger people and this is consistent really with global information. How do we and Melbourne contribute to solving this really difficult problem?
Andre La Gershe 17:17
So cardiovascular disease is indeed a big ticket item. And what Australia has done in the past and continues to do is is really to take a very creative approach to science, we've consistently taken novel ways of looking at big problems. And we've also invested heavily in niche topics. I mean, Peter was talking earlier and could expand on the work his company's done with left ventricular assist devices, for example, you know, they're used in a small percentage of people with very advanced heart failure, but their life saving therapies. And that's the sort of thing that as Australians have in Victorians have concentrated on and done exceptionally well.
Peter Lewis 18:00
You know that's right, Andre, thank you. Hydrix is probably number one in the design of L-VADs, left ventricular assist devices in the world, we've probably done nine or 10 of them, right around the world, mostly in the northern hemisphere, which is a lot of the research goes on. And people coming to us because they've embedded a new type of pump or a new type of valve. And they need to actually drive that valve, but be aware of the biological systems of the body of the heartbeat, and so on. So they come to us for a very specialised high electronics and software device that's fully FDA compliant, or CE compliant, that sort of class three. And sort of it's really like a snowball going downhill we've done one, second one, a third one, because we're the only guys in the world actually know how to do it. So here's a small little company in Victoria no one's ever heard of, and we're the leaders in L-VADs.
Dr Megan Robertson 18:46
what you're describing Peter is very complex technical work. Melbourne is one of three cities in the world to have two universities in the global top 20 biomedical rankings and we specialise in convergent science. So that linking computational science, engineering, medicine, basic science all in together, how do you go finding a highly skilled workforce in Melbourne?
Peter Lewis 19:14
Well, as you say, Me and we're very lucky. We work those two universities, Monash and Melbourne that produce outstanding graduates, biomedical engineers who are versed in the biological sciences, first in the engineering, science, diverse and design scientists, they brought those three different disciplines together. And what we're seeing is not only are there a lot of those, my daughter actually did a class some years ago and had 300 of her colleagues doing a similar sort of course in that area. But they're actually forming their own companies. There's a lot of actuators and incubators and those sort of things in Melbourne, where people actually come out of the university, come up with a bit of an idea on the way through and they're actually at this sort of designing and development developing it and there's one group Medtech Actuator that not only provides sort of money and support, but they've I think they've coached at about 30 companies a year to actually become established and grow the now moving to Singapore. Singaporeans are coming to Melbourne to try and extract some expertise. So there's a lot. There's a huge, wonderful, very capable young workforce out there.
Dr Megan Robertson 20:08
Sounds really vibrant, too. I understand Melbourne is in the top 10% for global life sciences, startup destinations.
Peter Lewis 20:18
Well, I didn't know that fact. But I'm not surprised, as we described earlier, given the environment, the research environment, the design environment, the manufacturing environment, everything you require is actually here, it's all within 20 minutes drive, it's a great place to actually start your business.
Dr Megan Robertson 20:32
And that highly skilled workforce, I'm sure is also really important in clinical research, Andre?
Andre La Gershe 20:38
Yeah, absolutely. And clinical research is becoming sort of more diverse and in a way more complicated with more integration with devices and with engineers, etc. And so we really do benefit from that integration of sort of a multidisciplinary workforce.
Dr Megan Robertson 20:56
How sustainable is the funding for research in in Victoria? Is it a sustainable market? Is it a strong sector, Andre?
Andre La Gershe 21:05
It is sustainable. And it is strong, as I understand over, say the last decade, Victoria has received around 40 to 50% of competitive funding, which really just shows the standing of Victoria within the nation. And Australia as a whole put a very competitive amount of GDP into medical and health research. So we're getting good funding on a nation and we're getting the lion's share of it. So absolutely.
Dr Megan Robertson 21:33
And Peter, what about industry accessing grants? How's that go?
Peter Lewis 21:38
Oh, look, it's a very vibrant environment. For grants, there's a lot of grants that are actually available for translation of IP into products for commercialisation and medical space and a regular event. So many of the companies we deal with, are thriving on the grants getting them, able to get them from IP through to sort of first-in-human just off the back of, you know, the grant environment.
Dr Megan Robertson 21:59
Andre, we've talked a little bit about our highly skilled workforce. But what about companies and startups engaging with key opinion leaders and clinicians who are actually working at the bedside? How does that work?
Andre La Gershe 22:17
Well, pretty easily really, I think, maybe it's a bit of an Australian trait that that we make ourselves pretty available. There's, it's often a very easy relationship between industry and clinician is my is my experience.
Dr Megan Robertson 22:34
And what you're describing really, is that clinicians are very engaged in this research process, because it's clinically important to them, they want to see this progress for their patients.
Andre La Gershe 22:45
As a clinician, you always want to be at the front of the curve for your patient, you want to be bringing the most innovative thing. And so that absolutely means integration with industry, it means integration with a research agenda.
Dr Megan Robertson 22:59
And research really being embedded in clinical care. Absolutely. Peter, how do you find as the industry getting engagement from local KOLs?
Peter Lewis 23:08
Well, I think there's a couple of dimensions to that. First of all, we see a lot of actual clinician led innovation. So clinicians themselves seeing a need in the operating theatre or ICU or something similar. And actually, I'm working with us to actually see that through which is great. So it's not all young startups. But on the young startup side of things. What we're finding is that the clinicians are very happy to provide insight, time and advice to our startups and even sit on advisory boards. So some very impressive advisory boards out there very impressive clinician sitting on them. They're readily available. It's a very nice relationship.
Dr Megan Robertson 23:43
So again, you're describing a very engaged clinical sector.
Peter Lewis 23:47
Absolutely.
Dr Megan Robertson 23:48
As a final question, Peter, if you could share one thing with the world about Victoria and Melbourne, and cardiovascular health R&D, what would it be?
Peter Lewis 24:00
Well, I think we've touched on a number of times today a million, but it's Victoria has a comprehensive capability in research, design, development, clinical trials, prototyping, first-in-human clinical trials, manufacturing, everything you require to turn your IP into commercial ready, practice here and ready for you and Victoria.
Dr Megan Robertson 24:21
Thank you. And Andre, if you could share one thing with the world about cardiovascular health R&D In Victoria, what would that be?
Andre La Gershe 24:32
I think one of our big assets is our high quality and consistent standard of health care and it creates a really good interface to do clinical research.
24:43
Thank you. Thank you both. That's been wonderful. Thank you for your time and insight today, Peter and Andre, and thank you to our listeners. Thank you for joining us today.
Peter Lewis 24:55
Thanks Megan.
Andre La Gershe 24:56
Thanks Megan.
Dr Megan Robertson 25:01
Catch us on Twitter at global underscore Vic.
Dr Megan Robertson 25:06
While we've heard from Andre and Peter today, we have cast the net widely across Victoria, to ensure that we've had all of our expertise covered. We'd like to thank all those people who provided their expertise. In particular, I'd like to mention Professor Steven Nichols, who leads the Victorian Heart Hospital and is the Director of Monash Heart and the Victorian Heart Institute. And Dr. Sean Gregory, who is the Director of CREATElab. CREATElab is the cardiorespiratory engineering and technology laboratory at Monash University. I hope you've enjoyed what you've heard today and if you keen on more information, then check out the links and information in our show notes. And remember, Victoria is a great destination for all things healthtech, were open for business, and we're only an email or phone call away. I'm Dr. Megan Robertson. Join me for the next episode of Global Victoria Healthtech Talks.