LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--George Health, a profit-for-purpose company, today announces $35 million of new financing to accelerate the commercialization of affordable drug treatments and technologies for some of the world’s biggest killers. This funding round was led by Bupa Australia, Federation Asset Management and the Australian Government-backed Medical Research Commercialisation Fund Biomedical Translation Fund (MRCF BTF), managed by Brandon Capital Partners.
The investments are set to fast-track the growth of George Health Enterprises, the commercial arm of the world-leading George Institute for Global Health, and George Medicines, its late-stage drug development company.
George Health Enterprises will receive almost $22 million from Federation Asset Management and Bupa Australia to accelerate the development of an innovative drug and technology pipeline, born from The George Institute’s research program, including a unique, low-cost digital technology to guide clinical decision making for patients with multiple chronic diseases, and an ultra-low-cost dialysis system for patients with end-stage kidney failure.
George Medicines will receive just over $13 million from the Australian Government-backed Medical Research Commercialisation Fund Biomedical Translation Fund (MRCF BTF), matched by George Health Enterprises, that will see a $26 million financial boost to bring to market a near-registration medicine for the prevention of recurrent heart attacks, a late-stage drug treatment for high blood pressure, and an innovative treatment for Type 2 diabetes.
According to the American Heart Association, around 120 million people in the United States currently have cardiovascular disease (CVD), including high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke. CVD is a leading cause of death, morbidity, and disability, and cost the country an estimated $351.3 billion in 2014 to 2015. In 2018, 34.2 million Americans, or 10.5 percent of the population, had diabetes, with the total cost estimated at $327 billion in 2017.
Staph Leavenworth Bakali, Chief Executive Officer and President of George Health said: “We are delighted to have such a strong group of investors supporting George Health. The company was established with a vision to expedite solutions to help tackle the leading causes of death worldwide. This transformative investment allows us to turn this vision into a reality and accelerate the growth of our business while bringing benefit to millions of people suffering from serious chronic conditions.”
Stephen MacMahon, Professor of Medicine at the University Oxford and Principal Director of The George Institute said: “This investment is very good news not only for George Health but, more importantly, for the hundreds of millions of patients suffering those chronic diseases that still cause most premature deaths worldwide. Mainstream pharmaceutical and medical technology companies are increasingly focussed on rare diseases, so George Health is filling a major emerging gap.”
“George Medicines has a real and tantalising potential to revolutionise the ease of use, accessibility and affordability of medicines for cardiovascular and metabolic disease, in both the developed and developing worlds,” says Dr Ingmar Wahlqvist, Director at George Medicines and Senior Investment Manager at Brandon Capital.
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Notes to Editors
George Health
Formed in 2014, George Health Enterprises (or George Health) is the commercial arm of The George Institute for Global Health. George Health (GH) is a for-profit fully-integrated global health care company committed to providing high-quality, affordable health products and services at scale. GH has exclusive commercial rights to all intellectual property of The George Institute, as well as access to expertise and support from its leading global scientists. The focus of George Health is on late stage clinical development of medicines and technologies for the most common serious chronic conditions. GH has four established health impact-driven businesses – George Clinical, Ellen Medical Devices, George Health Technologies and George Medicines.
George Medicines
George Medicines is an innovative late-stage drug development company focused on the large, expanding and underserved market for the management of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). George Medicines is developing treatments designed to provide improved clinical outcomes among patients with cardiometabolic diseases such as heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes, which remain the leading causes of premature death and disability worldwide. By combining established drugs in innovative fixed-dose formulations, George Medicines is creating treatments that are more efficacious, safer and affordable than the current alternatives.
The George Institute
The George Institute for Global Health is an independent medical research institute aiming to improve the health of millions of people worldwide by generating effective, evidence-based and affordable solutions to the world’s biggest health challenges. Headquartered in Sydney, with major centres in China, India and the UK, it has projects in more than 50 countries and affiliations with world-class universities. The George Institute UK was established in 2010 in partnership with the University of Oxford.
Twitter @GeorgeInstUK Web georgeinstitute.ox.ac.uk
Federation Asset Management
Federation is a leading investor in sustainable infrastructure and renewable energy, health and education real estate, and operating companies with strong growth potential. Its mission is to produce clean energy, to improve the health, education and living conditions of future generations, and to build a better community. Federation builds strong, sustainable, market-leading businesses through the provision of the capital they need to grow, as well as the strategic, analytical and operational support brought from years supporting similar businesses. The team has a strong track record of working together over a number of years and offers unrivalled investment experience across these sectors. Federation is a signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investing and is a member of the Responsible Investment Association of Australasia.
Bupa
Bupa is a diverse health and care group which has been committed to a purpose of longer, healthier, happier lives for close to 70 years. Health insurance accounts for the major part of our business with 16.7m customers and contributes around 75% of revenue. We operate clinics, dental centres and hospitals in some markets, with around 15m customers. We care for around 22,300 residents in our aged care businesses in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Spain. We directly employ around 80,000 people, principally in the UK, Australia, Spain, Poland, Chile, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Turkey, the US, Brazil, the Middle East and Ireland. We also have associate businesses in Saudi Arabia and India.
About the Medical Research Commercialisation Fund (MRCF) and Brandon Capital Partners
Brandon Capital Partners is a venture capital firm that manages the Medical Research Commercialisation Fund (MRCF), Australia and New Zealand’s largest life science investment fund. The MRCF is a unique collaboration between major Australian superannuation funds, the Australian and New Zealand governments, Australian state governments and more than 50 leading medical research institutes and research hospitals. The MRCF supports the development and commercialisation of early-stage biomedical discoveries originating from member research organisations, providing both capital and expertise to guide the successful development of new therapies. The MRCF has supported more than 45 start-up companies to date, most of which were founded by the MRCF. For more information about Brandon Capital Partners, visit www.brandoncapital.com.au
About the Biomedical Translation Fund
The Biomedical Translation Fund was announced by the federal government in December 2015 as part of the National Innovation and Science Agenda. It is a for-profit venture capital fund which pools public and private capital ($250 million of Commonwealth funding to be matched with private sector capital, creating $500 million for investment) for investments in companies with medical research projects at advanced pre-clinical, Phase I and Phase II stages of development.
Brandon Capital was one of three venture capital firms appointed as fund managers.
