INVEST - Gold Coast Health & Knowledge Precinct

New incentives make investment even more attractive

Incentives for jobs, capital investment, leasing and R&D

The GCHKP Project Office can coordinate a program of attractive incentives for qualified companies, with a new program endorsed by the City of Gold Coast boosting the assistance available, including to eligible companies seeking tenancies in the Precinct.

In February 2019, the Council of the City of Gold Coast endorsed a range of modifications to the GCHKP Investment Attraction Program, adding to the financial and in-kind support available to companies seeking to invest.

For the first time companies seeking tenancies are eligible to receive a rebate on overall lease costs (first two years).

Increases in financial incentives have been approved relating to capital investment within greenfield development (1.5% within the first two years), and job creation ($1,000 incentive per FTE between $50k-$80k and $7,000 incentive per FTE for a salary over $80k).

Incentives are also available to support R&D projects, workforce assistance and specifically to attract a companies’ Australian head office to the GCHKP.

The GCHKP Project Office now manages the Investment Attraction Program from start to finish, providing a more streamlined experience for companies.

The Project Office can also assist with information and access to assistance by the Australian and Queensland Governments, including the Federal R&D Tax Incentive and potential opportunities through the Advance Queensland Industry Attraction fund.

Companies locating to Queensland can also benefit from Australia’s lowest rate of payroll tax.

Download our Investment Attraction Guide for further information.

Investment-Attraction-2019-web

Filed Under: HEALTH, INVEST

Clinical trial capacity grows through collaboration and cost advantage

Austrade's A/g Manager International Health Abdul Ekram (centre), with representatives from the GCHKP, Grififth University Clinical Trials Unit and Gold Coast Health

The Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct is drawing national and international attention as a clinical trial hot spot, with a senior Austrade representative outlining the growing opportunities for the Precinct in the global clinical trial landscape.

Griffith University’s Clinical Trial Unit (CTU), together with the Gold Coast Health and Hospital Service, are fast building the GCHKP’s clinical trial capacity through a collaborative approach that brings researchers and clinicians together with industry partners to build business opportunities and best practice, supported by Australia’s cost-advantage and reputation.

Collaboration was formalised through an MOU, signed in November 2017, and continues to build with more than 100 registered trials either underway or completed.

Speaking at the inaugural ‘lunch and learn’ event, Austrade’s A/g Manager International Health, Mr Abdul Ekram, outlined the cost advantage of clinical trials in Australia, with early-phase trials 60% cheaper than they are in the United States, after tax incentives.

1,300 clinical trails are conducted in Australia each year, 63% involving industry, with the US sponsoring around 6,000 trials a year, 260 of which are conducted in Australia – there is a real growth opportunity

Professor Michael Good (left) participating in his own first-in-human clinical trial for a whole parasite Malaria vaccine with GCUH Director of Infectious Diseases Dr John Gerard

Trials range from Phase I to IV, including a second stage (1b) trial of the novel malaria vaccine PlasProtecT®, developed by the Institute for Glycomics’s Professor Michael Good AO and Senior Research Fellow Danielle Stanisic through extensive research since 2010; to a trauma study investigating whether early cooling of patients with severe traumatic brain injury produces better outcomes, led by the GCUH’s Director of Trauma and Griffith University Professor of Traumotology, Dr Martin Wullschleger.

Many trials are national and international multi-centre studies, including as part of Clinical Trials Networks such as the Australasian Kidney Trials Network, Australasian Stroke Trials Network and the National Trauma Research Institute, and conducted with leading global pharmaceutical and medtech companies, including Stryker, Medtronic, Paradigm Biopharmaceuticals and more.

Trials range across pharmaceutical studies for new and existing drugs, medical devices and surgical procedures to cancer treatment and a full range of medical specialty areas including haemotology, oncology, cardiology, endocrinology, interventional neuroradiology (led by global expert and GCUH specialist Dr Hal Rice), neurology, emergency medicine, surgery, trauma, obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics, allied health and complimentary medicine.

A full-list of Gold Coast Health registered trials is available here.

Dr Martin Wullschleger, GCUH Medical Director of Trauma, GU Professor of Traumology

Griffith University’s Clinical Trial Unit (CTU), located in the Griffith Health Centre on the Gold Coast campus adjacent to Gold Coast University Hospital, offers purpose-built, GCP aligned facilities for Phase I–IV clinical trials.

As a Core Research Facility of the University, the unit supports staff and collaborators to conduct a wide range of investigator initiated trials. It also provides professional trial coordination services to external clients such as the pharmaceutical, biotech, nutraceutical and complementary medicine industries, as well as Clinical Research Organisations.

The CTU has successfully conducted trials in:

Musculoskeletal Diseases
Infectious Diseases
Nephrology and Renal Disease
Endocrinology and Metabolic Disorders
Neurological Disorders
Device trials
Pharmacokinetic studies

A full list of current trials managed by the CTU is available here and donate or learn more about the Malaria Vaccine trial via the project website.

Gold Coast Private Hospital is also involved in a number of clinical trials in specialist areas, including cardiology, oncology and neurosurgery.

Filed Under: INVEST, TECHNOLOGY

Chinese partnerships to grow the bioeconomy on the Gold Coast

The SinoBioway delegation meet representatives from the GCHKP and Griffith University

The Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct (GCHKP) and Griffith University have signed complimentary memorandums of understanding (MOU’s) with a major Chinese biotechnology company associated with Beijing University, paving the way for significant research jobs and opportunities.

SinoBioway is a Chinese leader in developing biology-based technologies for medical, environmental and manufacturing applications and will set up an Australian landing company based in the GCHKP as it explores research projects with Griffith experts, and eventually a permanent presence in the Precinct.

The MOU with Griffith University is focused on stem cell research, identifying opportunities for project collaboration and joint research funding applications, promotion of Griffith capabilities and technologies in China and potential for clinical trials in China.

The Griffith MOU specifies a relationship with SinioBioway subsidiary Bantang National Gene Centre, based with the parent company in the Chaohu Economic Development Zone in Hefei, Anhui Province, while also allowing scope for broader opportunities across the company’s diverse operations.

GCHKP Project Director Di Dixon with Griffith Senior Deputy Vice Chancellor Professor Ned Pankhurst, SinoBioway Chairman Li Yunming and Griffith Enterprise Deputy Director Dr Jens Tampe

Stem Cell Research to be focus for collaboration

The MOU signings follow a high level visit to the GCHKP by representatives of SinoBioway, including Chairman Li Yunming, that included presentations on the Precinct, a visit to the Gold Coast University Hospital and viewing of investment sites, and presentations and a laboratory tour to showcase Griffith’s research capabilities.

The Precinct’s innovation and co-working hub, Cohort, has been identified as a potential landing space for SinoBioway’s initial operations in Australia, providing ready access to researchers working on stem-cell based spinal injury repair at the Clem Jones Centre for Neurobiology and Stem Cell Research, Menzies Health Institute Queensland.

Opportunities have also been identified to utilised Griffith’s unique Neurobank resource, and the delegation was also given a presentation on an exciting Medtech funded project that is developing artificial wrist ligament, led by GCUH orthopaedic surgeon and Griffith Professor Randy Bindra and leading biomechanical engineer Professor David Lloyd.

Professor Randy Bindra (right) trains surgeons from India in the latest wrist surgery techniques

Environmental technologies and advanced manufacturing opportunities to be explored

Professor Huijun Zhao, Director, Centre for Clean Environment and Energy, Deputy Director Griffith Environmental Futures Institute

The MOU may also allow collaboration to be explored with the Centre for Clean Environment and Energy, led by Professor Huijun Zhao, who holds distinguished membership of the Chinese Government’s One Thousand Foreign Experts Program of “State Specially Recruited Experts”, and is also Director of Centre for Environment and Energy nanomaterials, at the Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Hefei.

As one of China’s largest bioengineering pharmaceutical firms, Sinobioway Group harnesses the growing power of biotechnology to address society’s biggest challenges. Since its founding in 1992, it has been devoted to the development of a thriving industry within a bioeconomic system, a concept developed by Sinobioway’s founder Aihua Pan.

Encompassing more than 50 subsidiaries, Sinobioway’s businesses span biomedicine, bioagriculture, bioenergy, bioenvironment, bioservice, biomanufacturing, and biointelligence, with more than a dozen locations across China.

The GCHKP and Griffith are also working closely with the Australian Zhongguancun Private Equity & Venture Capital Association to progress opportunities – Zhongguancun is a technology hub in Beijing that has been described as China’s silicon valley.

GCHKP Project Director Di Dixon with Senior Deputy Vice Chancellor Professor Ned Pankhurst, Kerry Wang, Secretary General of the Australia Zhongguancun Private Equity & Venture Capital Association and Griffith Enterprise Deputy Director Dr Jens Tampe