Spinifex Pharmaceuticals Pty Limited is a company developing a therapeutic for the treatment of neuropathic pain and has demonstrated pre-clinical efficacy of potential drugs. Symbiosis has a 35% equity stake. Other investors include GBS Venture Partners Limited and Uniseed.
Herdvac Pty Limited is a company developing a food safety vaccine for cattle and dairy herds to control food poisoning from salmonella infection. Herdvac has demonstrated in two animal trials that its vaccine is 100% protective against salmonella dublin. Symbiosis has invested a total of $625,000, and has a 41% equity stake.
Meningococcal disease is a potentially fatal disease and is very aggressive in its onset. Clinical signs only become visibly evident once the disease has advanced significantly by which time a substantial amount of damage may have already been caused prior to detection.
RapiSure is developing a diagnostic test which can detect the presence of disease at a stage prior to it becoming visibly evident. This test could be used by doctors in surgeries and hospitals as a rapid point-of-care diagnostic tool. Symbiosis has a 51% equity stake.
Ausonex Pty Ltd
In the developed world, newborns are required to undergo a hearing impairment test. The current tests are cumbersome, take between 10-30 minutes to complete and have a high 'fail' result resulting in referrals and a second set of tests.
Ausonex is developing a prototype auditory brain response device for testing the hearing of newborn children in a tenth of the current time and providing a result which has a far higher degree of accuracy than currently achievable. As such hearing tests become mandatory for newborn children throughout the developing world, the potential market for such a device will continue to increase. Prototypes have been tested on 140 children at the Mater Mothers' Hospital in Brisbane. Symbiosis has a 44% equity stake.
Pepfactants has developed a peptide-based wetting agent (a surfactant) with the potential to revolutionise the control of emulsions (oil and water mixtures) and foams (gas and liquid mixtures). The key feature of the peptides is their ability to form a thin film at the oil-water or gas-liquid interface and reversibly switch on and off and thus make and break emulsions and foams on demand. An example is the ability to separate oil and water and, once separated, to mix them together again using a number of chemical switches (for example, through the use of an acid mixture). The pepfactant can potentially be recovered for re-use - providing enormous cost savings to industry.
There are considerable potential applications for this technology, not only the pharmaceutical industry, but also in biocatalysis, chemical synthesis, oil and gas production and cosmetics. It is believed this is the first and only surfactant that can reversibly control the formation, stabilization and destabilization of emulsions and foams. Symbiosis has co-invested in this technology with UniSeed, and has a 32% equity stake.
Polyvac Pty Ltd
Polyvac is developing a vaccine for Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV). It is a common pathogen and is the most common cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia among infants and children under 1 year of age. The RSV vaccine market is significant and there is a large unmet clinical need. In addition to the initial indication of RSV, the technology also includes a platform which can be used for other groups of viruses, including Herpes and Hepatitis. Symbiosis has co-invested in this technology, also with UniSeed, and has a 30% stake.
New opportunities
Symbiosis's exclusive pipeline access agreement with UQ means that promising projects are always coming its way.
