Brandon Capital secures $439m to back Australian medical science companies

Melbourne-headquartered life sciences venture capital firm Brandon Capital has raised $439 million to invest in both early and late-stage Australian medical science companies, including $150 million from the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation (NRFC).

The news comes after Brandon Capital and the NRFC were both recently involved in a $40 million Series C round for ocular implants development company PolyActiva. 

The WA Government is another new investor to enter the fold with Brandon Capital by joining its sixth fund, Brandon BioCatalyst Fund Six (BB6), alongside existing backers Hesta, Host Plus, CSL (ASX: CSL) and the Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC).

To date Brandon Capital has raised over A$1 billion across previous funds with other notable investments including radiopharma company AdvanCell, needle-free vaccination platform Vaxxas, and peanut allergy cure developer Aravax.

The new fund will go towards merging biomedical technologies with strong commercial potential, translating exciting discoveries into high-growth firms that positively impact human health.

"Closing at $439 million, BB6 is our largest fund to date, and we remain committed to advancing breakthrough biomedical innovations through our unwavering scientific rigour and disciplined capital allocation, in pursuit of exceeding our investors’ expectations," says Brandon Capital co-founder and managing partner Dr Chris Nave.

"The NRFC’s investment will support some of Australia’s most promising biomedical companies, providing the level of funding required to support the development and commercialisation of their novel technologies and importantly, enabling them to do this from an Australian base.

"The NRFC’s investment is a vote of confidence in the future of Australian medical science, providing the opportunity for more of our local innovations to be developed into life-saving medical products, as well as creating jobs and income for the country."

Brandon Capital has an active portfolio of over 30 companies with 17 in clinical trials, four advancing or in-market, a promising preclinical pipeline and several actively contributing to Australia’s high-skilled manufacturing sector growth.

Recent portfolio company announcements include US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approvals for a hypertension therapy from George Medicines and a left ventricular cardiac resynchronisation device developed by EBR Systems, with Q-Sera’s blood collection tubes that produce high-quality serum faster and more reliably, recently approved in Japan.

"Australia produces some of the world’s best medical research, but these promising discoveries are often lost offshore at the point of commercialisation and Australian medical manufacturing makes up only 0.3 per cent of the nation’s gross domestic product," says NRFC CEO David Gall.

"Medical science has long development timelines, and it is important for the NRFC to make early and considered investments in the sector to attract the talent and capital that we will need to build our local commercialisation capabilities,"

"If we want medical science jobs and industries to exist in Australia in 10 years, we need to invest in them today."

While the NRFC’s investment allocation will primarily help late-stage ventures to grow, complete clinical development and pursue regulatory approval, a third of the funding will also be dedicated to early-stage ventures to help support the next generation of medical breakthroughs.

"Our investment in Brandon Capital caps off a strong year for the NRFC and this investment puts our combined investments above the financial year target of $550 million," says NRFC chief investment officer Dr Mary Manning.