Johnson & Johnson Innovation officially opened the Johnson & Johnson Innovation Partnering Office @ Monash (JJIPO@Monash) in collaboration with the Victorian State Government and Monash University to accelerate healthcare innovation and commercialization in Victoria and beyond.
The partnering office, situated at Monash University’s Clayton Campus in Melbourne, will work across Victoria’s life science ecosystem to identify and accelerate the development of early-stage healthcare solutions that address significant unmet patient needs in medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and consumer. It will also focus on nurturing the next generation of innovators by delivering training, mentoring, and networking programs to connect Victorian innovators with stakeholders from around the global Johnson & Johnson Innovation network.
The opening ceremony was attended by leaders from industry, government, and academia, including Jill Hennessy MP, Victorian Minister for Health; Joaquin Duato, Executive Vice President and Worldwide Chairman, Pharmaceuticals at Johnson & Johnson; and Sarah Newton, Pro Vice-Chancellor of Monash University (Enterprise).
“We’re proud to have so many leading researchers here in Victoria. The new Johnson & Johnson Innovation Partnering Office at Monash will give our world-class researchers the support they need to transform their findings into everyday care for Victorians while also supporting local jobs,” said Minister Hennessy.
“We are extremely excited to open JJIPO@Monash,” said Mr. Duato. “At Johnson & Johnson, we seek to bring together the brightest minds in science to take on some of the biggest healthcare challenges of our time. To do this, we are focusing on partnering with governments and universities in the world’s leading innovation hotspots—including Australia—to translate research into global healthcare solutions for patients everywhere.”
To support the collaboration, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, JLABS (JLABS) announced the Victorian QuickFire Challenge: Driving Device Innovation, a joint initiative with the Victorian Government, to help kick off the search for new medical device innovation. The three individuals or teams who submit the most promising medical device solutions in the Challenge will be awarded funding from a total grant pool of AUD300,000 provided by the Victorian Government to further accelerate their medical device innovations, along with mentoring and special access to the Johnson & Johnson Family of Company’s global network of experts in development and commercialization.
“Healthcare innovators are smart, ambitious, resourceful, and on a mission, but if they are not connected to the right partners, their ideas may never reach patients in need. The goal of the QuickFire Challenge is to support entrants to have the best possible chance to make a difference for patients, and we’re excited to be supporting innovators in Victoria and across Australia,” said Melinda Richter, Global Head, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, JLABS. JJIPO@Monash is the second partnering office that Johnson & Johnson Innovation has opened in Australia, following the success of the first Johnson & Johnson Innovation Partnering Office in Queensland (JJIPO@QUT), which was announced in 2016 in partnership with the Queensland Government and Queensland University of Technology (QUT).
Commenting on JJIPO@Monash, Ms. Newton said: “Placing the office at Monash University ensures that the expertise of Johnson & Johnson Innovation is linked to universities, research centers, and industries across the state of Victoria, as well as nationally and globally, ultimately facilitating collaborations that can fast track healthcare innovations to the patients that need them.”
“JJIPO@Monash will work to establish connections and collaborations with leading innovators in other global life science hotspots, including Johnson & Johnson’s Centre for Device Innovation at Texas Medical Centre and FutureX in Israel,” said Kathy Connell, Senior Director, New Ventures, Australia/New Zealand, for Johnson & Johnson Innovation. “The focus of the Challenge on Medical Devices will be an important manifestation of these significant connections.”
(Source: eurekalert.com)
Filed Under: Drug Discovery
