The Victorian Infection and Immunity Network Industry Alliance hosted the Lorne Infection and Immunity Conference’s first Business Breakfast on Friday 21 March 2014 at the Mantra Lorne.

Over 80 guests from industry, academia, the State Government and the defence sector were participants at the Breakfast, which featured an announcement about successful Collaborative Projects funded by the VIIN Industry Alliance.

Ms Sue Heistein, Senior Manager for Commercialisation at the State Government’s Department of State Development, Business and Innovation, was the VIIN Industry Alliance’s special guest and announced the six successful collaborative projects for:

1)      new drugs for dengue;

2)      ultra-rapid antibody discovery for viral infections;

3)      the development of anti-neisserial drugs;

4)      new drugs for Clostridium difficile disease;

5)      the development of dairy-derived antibodies for preventing viral disease; and,

6)      new adjuvants for the poultry industry.

The VIIN Industry Alliance’s Collaborative Projects were awarded to research teams involving VIIN scientists and a Victorian-based business in the biotech or pharmaceutical industry.  The projects addressed the translation of basic research outcomes or specific technical or market problems.

Each project team made a brief presentation about their work and Dr Andrew Nash, Senior Vice-President for Research at CSL Ltd concluded the event.

Dr Nash noted that combined Government and industry funding for R&D in Australia was significantly less than an R&D budget for many major international pharmaceutical firms and emphasised that academia and industry needed to work together to make the most of our limited resources.

This was the 4^th Lorne Infection and Immunity Conference, which was attended by nearly 300 registrants from around Australia and internationally.  The 2015 Conference will be held Wednesday 18 – Friday 20 February at the Mantra Lorne.  For more information about the conference, please click here.