AusHealth® is an Australian-owned health and wellbeing organisation that provides workplace drug and alcohol testing and debt collection services to hospitals, while turning its profits wholly to locally led, globally recognised medical research.
Since establishing in 1985, AusHealth® has contributed more than $47 million into South-Australian led research towards pain management, cancer, and diabetes – commercialising new medical technologies from researchers at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and SA Pathology.
In the last 38 years, AusHealth® has assisted with the formation of several notable Australian companies (collectively valued at $1.5 billion) through the licensing of valuable intellectual property.
Since then, our three divisions have made a major impact on the community. AusHealth® Work has become a leading provider of drug and alcohol testing for workplaces across Australia, conducting more than a million tests since 2020. AusHealth® Hospitals serves more than 80 hospitals nationally across five states, saving $17 million in lost and unpaid patient fees. AusHealth® Research continues to pursue amazing Australian-led research.
Here’s what we’ve been working on, in Adelaide’s very own backyard…
THE ADELAIDE PHAGE THERAPY CENTRE
One of the most exciting projects AusHealth is working towards is the Adelaide Phage Therapy Centre – using the viruses of bacteria (phage) to eradicate hard-to-treat infections and the growing problem of antibiotic resistance.
It’s long been understood that phages have exquisite selectivity for their specific host bacterium and can kill the host bacterium upon infection. This makes them a possible alternative to antibiotics for treating bacterial infections.
Established in 2020 by the University of Adelaide and the Central Adelaide Local Health Network (CAHLN), the Centre is working towards developing phage-based treatments for a variety of clinical purposes. The Adelaide Phage Therapy Centre has developed an expanding biobank of phages against a variety of clinically important bacteria.
It’s hoped that the Centre will assist in finding solutions that assist in treating conditions such as serious respiratory diseases, bone infections, diabetic ulcers and Cystic Fibrosis.
AusHealth® is providing funding and services to establish the Centre’s operations.
In partnership with AusHealth®, the Adelaide Phage Therapy Centre is currently developing its ability to develop and manufacture phages and is also working towards obtaining regulatory approval for the use of this new class of antibacterial agents in humans, with the expectation that the Centre will be able to provide phage to hospitals for use in treatment in the near future.
TREATMENT OF DIABETES
AusHealth® is developing new technologies to revolutionise the way we treat Type 2 diabetes.
One project involves the modification of agents naturally present in the venom of platypus and echidna to develop new drugs that regulate insulin production with reduced side effects. The other AusHealth® project involves the use of a newly identified regulatory system in the body associated with insulin regulation. Both projects involve a collaboration with the University of Adelaide and the South Australian Health and Medical Institute (SAHMRI).
In these collaborative research projects, AusHealth® is currently supporting ‘proof of concept’ studies to develop these potential new drugs for treating Type 2 diabetes.
CARMENTA PREGNANCY SCREENING
Advancing health screening techniques is another primary focus of AusHealth® — commercialising more effective and lower cost screening test to benefit the community.
One such test is the Carmenta Down Syndrome screening — promoting healthy mothers and babies through a pre-natal blood test.
For around three decades, the pre-natal Down Syndrome screening test has been conducted through a ‘triple-test’ screening — measuring certain blood markers and other specific characteristics of the developing foetus to identify a potential Down Syndrome pregnancy.
Typically, further chromosomal testing is then performed to determine whether the pregnancy is affected or unaffected. This existing test largely depends on testing the fluid of the womb, potentially impacting the foetus.
However, AusHealth® Carmenta technology aims to provide a simpler and more accurate screening test without relying on measuring the characteristics of the developing foetus.
Researchers from SA Pathology at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital (WCH) have discovered that a blood sample from a mother with a Down Syndrome pregnancy has an altered profile of lipids (fats) in the blood which can be detected to assess the risk of Down Syndrome. The technology utilises state of the art mass spectrometry to detect these altered lipids and can be performed earlier in pregnancy.
AusHealth® has partnered with SA Pathology to fund the research and provide commercial development.
The Carmenta technology is currently undergoing large-scale validation and the technology is expected to be commercially developed in the near future.
CANCER PROGRAMS
AusHealth® is supporting the development of various new cancer projects.
In partnership with our licensee, Telix Pharmaceuticals, we are supporting clinical trials at the Royal Adelaide Hospital utilising the radiolabelled APOMAB antibody as a diagnostic agent and a treatment for ovarian and lung cancers. The APOMAB antibody was developed by researchers at South Australian hospitals and binds to dead or dying cells, meaning it can be utilised in conjunction with some existing cancer treatments to image and treat some cancers.
In addition, AusHealth® is collaborating with researchers at the Centre for Cancer Biology, an alliance between SA Pathology and the University of South Australia. We are supporting the development of new antibody drugs for treating pancreatic cancer and some cancers arising from bone marrow.
And we’re not stopping there.
AusHealth® is also proud to support a number of other projects alongside other Australian researchers. We’re passionate about finding local projects with merit and nurturing them with guidance, intellectual property protection and funding towards eventual commercialisation.
AusHealth® is proud to be aligned with Adelaide medical researchers working in the public health and university sectors to advance cancer, pain, diabetes, and other world first medical technologies. AusHealth® has a unique business model_ it takes medical research inventions, develops the intellectual property, commercialises and launches these technologies overcoming the ‘valley of death’ – a point where most medical research meets it demise due to lack of funding, commercialisation expertise and lack of IP support.
AusHealth® brings medical innovation in Adelaide to life.
The AusHealth® head office is located at 65 Hardys Road, Underdale 5032.
