AVITA Therapeutics Powers BioScience Managers to Prestigious Australian Investment Council Award
Melbourne, Australia 7 December 2020: Leading Australian-based healthcare investment firm BioScience Managers Pty Ltd has received the 2020 Best Venture Capital Investment Award at the prestigious Australian Investment Council Investing for Growth Awards 2020.
The Best Venture Capital Investment Award recognises BioScience Managers’ patient eight-year investment in AVITA Therapeutics, Inc., a regenerative medicine company that is commercialising the RECELL® technology, initially developed by plastic surgeon Professor Fiona Wood at Royal Perth Hospital to treat burns patients using their own healthy skin cells.
Approved by the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) in September 2018, the RECELL® platform technology is initially aimed at burns, but also has wider applications in other skin-related disease, for example chronic wound care and vitiligo, a disfiguring skin condition.
BioScience Managers first invested in AVITA in September 2012, after which the firm took a highly active role taking board seats and advocating for management and strategy changes to drive the commercialisation process. After some years of thorough involvement in defining the value proposition, market strategy, regulatory approach and commercialisation readiness, BioScience Managers completed its exit strategy of Avita in March 2020 at 8 times return. Even more importantly, the firm had helped to position AVITA Therapeutics for sustained success.
“AVITA is a terrific story of investment in Australian innovation, taking truly revolutionary technology to a global marketplace, making life-changing treatment accessible to a vast number of patients,” says Amanda Gillon, senior partner at BioScience Managers. “By using RECELL, patients can in many cases avoid the scarring that many burn victims suffer.”
“Our biggest achievement was the reset of the company’s approach to the regulatory pathway that eventually led to the US FDA approval – the first treatment to be approved for severe thermal burns in over 20 years,” Gillon says.
Yasser El-Ansary, Chief Executive of the Australian Investment Council, says the Best Venture Capital Award – as with all the Investing for Growth Awards – acknowledges not only patient, ultimately successful investment, but also the social impact.
“In this case that impact is the ability of this biotechnology development to provide great health outcomes for patients that weren’t available before, in a broad range of skin conditions,” says El-Ansary. “BioScience Managers applied a particular investment thesis at the outset, but also contributed significant support, mentoring, board membership and non-financial support to AVITA to contribute to the company’s success.”
Media Contacts:
BioScience Managers:
Victoria Durrans
Phone: +61 3 9618 8248
vcd@biosciencemanagers.com
Monsoon Communications
Rudi Michelson
Phone: +61 3 9620 3333
Phone: +61 411 402 737
rudim@monsoon.com.au