Pathway to Market for Medical Bionics Devices

Peter BlameyDeputy Director (IP and Commercialisation)

Bionics Institute

Like the yellow brick road, the path to market is an imaginary one. The challenge is to make it real.

In the world of Medical Bionics, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and the Lion may have found their heart, their brain, and their courage by following a very different path.

Planning the journey is important

Where does the journey start? Where do we want to go? Why are we doing this? How will we get there? How long will it take? How much will it cost? Who will we take with us? Who are our customers? Who are our competitors? How will we sell the devices? Who will pay for the devices? What is the value proposition?

The Bionics Institute is an ideal starting point on the path to market

Our mission is to develop medical bionics solutions that will improve quality of life for millions of people with chronic conditions that cannot be treated in other ways.

Hearing Vision Neurobionics

2005/6$3.5M pa

2010/11$5.0M pa

2015/16$7.5M pa

Core concepts and technologies from bionic ears will be used for new applications

Core concepts and technologies from pacemakerswere used in the first Australian multichannel cochlear implants

and then developed further

Telectronics AustraliaPacemaker

1975

The Cochlear Implant has enabled over 120,000 deaf people to hear. About half of them are children

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Children with cochlear implants perform well as spoken language improves

CELF Equivalent Language Age (years)0 2 4 6 8 10 12

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The Institute is developing expertise inthe incubation of new companies

Research partners

Incubation 2001-2

Blamey & Saunders Hearing P/L

Commercial partners

Blamey & Saunders Hearing delivers eHealth benefits including self-fitted hearing aids using the national broadband network

Dynamic Hearing provides signal processing for millions of hearing aids and bluetooth headsets each year

The Institute is bringing a novel infection controltechnology to market

Research partners

Incubation 2010

Clinical partnerCommercial partnerDrug and monomer molecules are built up like LEGO to construct a polymer with the desired physical properties and controlled drug delivery time

Our translational research is delivering health and economic benefits to Australia

In 2011/12, total turnover of the three spin-offs is projected to exceed $8m pa. Total employment is about 40 EFT.

Over 3 million Australians would benefit from hearing aids but only 20% use them. The burden of hearing loss is $12 billion per year. We are using Australian technology to improve hearing and reduce the burden by providing high quality self-hearing and reduce the burden by providing high quality self-fitted hearing aids at about 1/3 the price of conventional devices.

Blamey & Saunders Hearing P/L

We are developing a Neurobionics device to detect and suppress epileptic seizures

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Epileptic seizure suppression in the GAERS rat model

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The panels show the distribution of seizure durations in an epileptic rat model:

Left panel No stimulation. 25% of seizures end within 5 seconds.Mid panel Conventional stimulation. 35% of seizures end within 5 seconds.Right panel Novel stimulation. 90% of seizures end within 5 seconds.

Black dots indicate the time the stimulus was applied

The Epikon epilepsy device will address large markets in Australia, USA, and Europe

Complete Bionics Solution for Epilepsy

Fully implantable neurobionics device for the detection and suppression of seizures.

Automatic iEEG labelling software. Neuroimaging and source localisation

processes. Patient selection and implantation

systems.

The Epikon business plan will deliver a complete solution for refractory epilepsy

Bionics Institutevia Bionic Enterprisesand Epikon

SVHM Prof M Cook Mr M Murphy

Bionics InstituteUniversity of Melbourne

Epikon

Marketing DeviceDevelopment

ClinicalTeam

ResearchTeam

The potential economic impact of medical bionics is high

An economic impact study by Allen Consulting Group in 2008 concluded that within 20 years, investment in medical bionics at the Institute could result in:

New medical bionicsproducts on the marketwithin 10 years

$220 to $440 million pa$220 to $440 million paincrease in GDP$186 to $553 millionincrease in householdconsumption

1372 to 2784 extra jobs

A medical bionics industry will bring: Improved patient health Skills development Job creation Job creation Long term export earnings New opportunities for innovative

technology solutions

Blamey & SaundersHearing P/L