A chance meeting between an Indian cardiac surgeon and an Australian biomedical scientist has led to the creation of a company that could potentially help people dealing with end stage heart failure.
Dr K R Balakrishnan, a Cardiac Surgeon based in India and Dr Pete Ayre, a Biomedical Scientist, met in the Indian city of Chennai nearly 5 years ago. They shared a vision of helping millions who are dying from end-stage heart failure. This led to the creation of CardioBionic Australia and CardioBionic India.
They envisioned a technology pipeline that would be economically viable in countries like India.
According to CardioBionic they have developed technology that will support the left and / or the right side of the failing heart powered by a portable control and battery unit which is flexible enough to be configured for adults and children for temporary or permanent therapy.
Chief Operating Officer, Carole-Anne Priest told The Australia Today that CardioBionic is an innovative manufacturing and technology company based in Australia that is creating a LVAD (Left Ventricular Assist Device) at reduced manufacturing costs. LVAD is a pump that is used by patients that have end stage heart failure.
Chief Scientific Officer at CardioBionic, Dr Pete Ayers, gave us an exclusive glimpse of how this device works. He also mentioned that CardioBionic has been created after raising funds with Indian investors and their device costs around one third of the American devices.
Brian Haddrell, Director of Design at CardioBionic, told us that the design has been accumulated so that it can be easily inserted and easily manufactured.
Ross Dean who is Engineering Manager at the company says that their LVAD has been specifically designed such that the manufacturing process can be scaled up and duplicated anywhere.
“We see our future as manufacturing in India”, said Mr Dean
The company says that they have done trials on sheep so far, with the next stage of the process being human trails.
Irfan Malik is Australia India Business Council’s (AIBC) National Associate Chair and President NSW. He says that Healthcare and MedTech is one of the most promising sectors for Australia India bi-lateral collaboration where cutting-edge Australian Engineering & Tech IP can be leveraged partnering with Indian manufacturing which can be be scaled up for global markets to enable the creation of healthcare ecosystems that could change lives globally.
“Cardio-Bionic is a great example of this collaboration right from its conceptualisation to product engineering based on Australian Medtech Startup and Indian Healthcare sector collaboration focused on fit for purpose patient experience and growing Global market needs backed by leading healthcare professionals.”
“This is also a great example of Indian Investments into Australian technologies from early stage to potential high growth venture global market possibilities leveraging global Indian Diapsora network of healthcare professionals. We look forward to facilitating and supporting such success stories being shaped which helps us validate and amplify these bilateral opportunities.”
