An innovative Andrews Labor Government partnership with industry and academia has been extended, with Victorian medical researchers and early-stage medtech entrepreneurs producing results that are changing lives.

Established in 2018, the Johnson & Johnson Innovation Partnering Office is a public-private collaboration between the Government, Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC and Monash University.

One of only three Partnering Offices in the world, it enables Victorian researchers and early-stage companies to work with experts from Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC to deliver novel healthcare solutions as part of the Government’s work to grow our medical technologies and pharmaceuticals sector.

The Partnering Office works with emerging pharmaceutical, medical device, healthcare companies and academic researchers across Victoria to provide commercialisation training and networking support at no cost, to accelerate life-science research towards commercialisation.

Since 2018, it has provided a platform for collaborative projects, including a multi-year Alzheimer’s disease research collaboration between St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research and Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and the QuickFire Challenge competition, which creates opportunities for local medtech entrepreneurs and is jointly sponsored by the Government and Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC.

It has also hosted research collaborations between Monash and Janssen Biotech, Inc. exploring new methods of diagnosis and treatment for Coeliac disease and with Janssen Pharmaceutica NV. advancing clinical development of inhaled oxytocin for the prevention of postpartum haemorrhage in developing countries.

Postpartum haemorrhage – a condition of excessive blood loss after birth – is the leading cause of maternal mortality globally, resulting in an estimated 60,000 deaths per year.

The novel form of oxytocin is an inhalable dry powder that does not require refrigeration, making it more efficient to distribute to frontline health workers and potentially administrable by mothers themselves.

The Government has invested more than $580 million in medical research in the past year, including $400 million for a new Australian Institute of Infectious Diseases. The Government has separately created a $2 billion Breakthrough Victoria Fund to back the next generation of research and innovation and drive jobs growth.

Victoria attracts more than 40 per cent of Australia’s medical research funding and Victorian medical technology and pharmaceutical companies spend almost $1 billion on research every year.