Four companies including VeinTech and Vision Pharma have been selected as finalists in the Great for the State category at the Innovator of the Year Awards.
Four companies including VeinTech and Vision Pharma have been selected as finalists in the Great for the State category at the Innovator of the Year Awards.
Launched in 2006, the WA Innovator of the Year program recognises local businesses that have developed an innovative product, technology or service.
Vision Pharma, a subsidiary of ASX-listed biotech company PYC Therapeutics, is up for a platinum award after being named a finalist in the Business News ‘Great for the State’ category, alongside Avicena Systems, Environmental Water Solutions, and VeinTech.
Vision Pharma was also named a finalist in the Rio Tinto Emerging category.
The Perth business is a partnership between PYC Therapeutics (formerly Phylogica) and Lions Eye Institute focused on developing novel therapies to treat eye diseases.
It has been recognised for its VP-001 and VP-002 drug programs, which are intended to treat retinitis pigmentosa – an inherited eye disease that remains one of the leading causes of childhood blindness.
PYC chief executive Rohan Hockings said the VP-001 treatment was designed to prevent the progression to blindness in sufferers of the disease.
“The treatment was conceived and developed in a Western Australian academic-industry partnership, with clinical trials planned to be conducted in Australia,” Dr Hockings said.
“The translational journey of VP-001 from concept to clinical trials is believed to be the first for a genetic medicine developed in WA.”
The idea for the treatment followed a discussion between PYC chief scientific officer Sue Fletcher and ophthalmologist Fred Chen, who was becoming frustrated with watching his patients suffer from retinitis pigmentosa.
Professor Fletcher said a major obstacle for generic medicines was the poor delivery to target cells.
She said VP-001 overcame this problem by using a naturally derived, proprietary cell-penetrating peptide that carried the treatment into the otherwise inaccessible target cells at the back of the eye.
The treatment is shown to rescue cells and restore their structure, with results from studies expected to be released before September 30.
Meanwhile, West Perth-based Avicena Systems has been recognised for its Sentinel COVID-19 screening system, which can process almost 100,000 saliva tests per day.
Sentinel, which has won the support of the federal and state governments, can also test for pathogens such as dengue fever, tuberculosis and malaria.
Avicena Systems recently took home Startup of the Year in the 2021 Incite awards.
Fellow startup VeinTech was recognised in this year's Innovator of the Year awards for a device that aims to reduce the failure of first pass cannulation (inserting a needle into a vein).
The business, spawn from Perth Biodesign, is now planning to develop its VeinWave tool into a clinical prototype that can be used in human trials, with the overall goal of getting the device into hospitals.
VeinTech is up for another platinum award, in the Wesfarmers Wellbeing category.
Environmental Water Solutions (trading as Complete Home Filtration) was recognised for a proprietary filtration system called Attapure, which the business claims is a world-first in protecting people from contaminated water.
Complete Home Filtration was named Startup Business of the Year in Business News' inaugural RISE event, held in December last year.
The 2021 Innovator of the Year winners will be announced at an awards ceremony on November 3.
