Caldeon adds to bone work at UWA

Researchers at the University of Western Australia have licensed a technology that may lead to a new treatment for osteoporosis, the skeletal disorder that affects almost two million Australians.

And the need for treatment options is becoming more critical, with Osteoporosis Australia estimating the number of sufferers will rise to 2.2 million by 2006 and three million by 2021.

Following the UWA breakthrough, researchers received $10,000 to carry out further ‘proof-of-concept’ experiments.

In addition, UWA’s Office of Industry and Innovation – which helps technology developed within the university secure a foothold in the commercial world – started to contact venture capitalist companies, as well as biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies known to be interested in treatments for bone diseases.

The OII secured $3 million from a specialist biotechnology investor, Start-up Australia Ventures, through Caldeon, a drug development company specifically created to commercialise the work being done in orthopaedic surgery.

OII biotechnology commercialisation project manager Simon Handford said the partnership was an excellent result.

“If someone is prepared to invest in early stage projects that carry some risk, then we are prepared to give them a share of the technology,” he said.

This latest research project started about two years ago when PhD student Tony Phan and his supervisor, Dr Jiake Xu, examined the activity of a protein in the presence of osteoblasts, the cells responsible for the formation of bone.

The discovery is a genuine first in the bone metabolism field. It is the first agent to be discovered that specifically stimulates and protects the specialised cells responsible for forming bone.

Caldeon will now work with UWA to assess the lead compound in several animal models of bone loss before starting pre-clinical and clinical development programs.

OII director Andy Sierakowski said he was delighted to see such an important scientific discovery being commercialised to the benefit of osteoporosis patients.

“This type of investment is also critical to extracting commercial benefit from the substantial government investment in research,” he said.

Start-up Australia is a specialist early stage biotechnology investor with $55 million under management. The company sources and develops technology investment opportunities from Australia’s universities, hospitals and medical research institutes.

Start-up Australia is an investor in Alchemia, EvoGenix, Mimetica, Promics, Protagonist, Cortical, Iliad Chemicals and Replikun Biotech.