Arovella to shut Perth R&D facility

Confidence in Western Australia’s life sciences scene has been on the rise, boosted by the AusBiotech conference starting in Perth today, but running counter to that optimism was Arovella Therapeutics' announcement it will close its local R&D facility.

Arovella said it would shut its Perth-based facility following a strategic review of its development pipeline, deciding to focus resources on its iNKT cell platform and cease expenditure on the OroMist, an oral spray to deliver a broad range of drug classes.

After 20 years on the ASX, Arovella rebranded from Suda Pharmaceuticals 12 months ago. It was one of Perth’s longest listed biotech companies, although it shifted its headquarters to Melbourne in the early days of the pandemic. Managing director Michael Baker, most of its executive and all its board are based on the east coast or, in more recent times, in the US.

The change in technological focus has drawn the company’s attention to scientific endeavour overseas and resulted in key recruitment of new executives offshore during the past year.

Arovella's news runs against the increasingly accepted line that life sciences in WA is reaching a critical mass, with the number of companies in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and associated health technology reaching a level where those seeking a career in the sector have reasons to stay here.

AusBiotech research released earlier this year showed WA had experienced the highest growth in the number of companies in that particular sector during the past five years, although it came off a low base.

In addition, a growing level of investors and government money has underpinned the optimism, the biggest news being the Forrest family’s Tattarang establishing a $250 million fund to invest in a broad range of health-related technology.

Arovella’s announcement is unfortunate timing given Australia’s biggest life sciences conference, AusBiotech, returned this week to Perth for the first time in 15 years, with more than 1000 delegates registered to attend along with 300 attendees for AusBioInvest, which also runs over the next three days.

Recognising the importance of this conference to the sector, the state government has released new prospectus promoting investment opportunities in WA’s growing health and medical life sciences industry.

The prospectus outlines WA’s capability in terms of research institutions and infrastructure as well as the state’s commitment via funding for a life sciences innovation hub and the repurposing of the former $1.6 billion WA Future Fund to become the Future Health Research and Innovation Fund a vehicle which has already awarded tens of million in grants to academics, researchers and companies in this field.