George Health Enterprises and its subsidiary George Medicines have raised a combined $35m in funding from investors including Bupa Australia to drive pipeline development and commercialisation.

George Health Enterprises, the UK-based commercial arm of George Institute for Global Health operating an integrated healthcare business, and its drug development subsidiary George Medicines secured £27m ($35m) in combined funding yesterday.
The capital is split into $22m for George Health, co-led by health insurer Bupa Australia and private equity fund Federation Asset Management,  and $13m for George Medicines, supplied by the Medical Research Commercialisation Fund (MRCF).
MRCF, backed by the government of Australia and managed by Brandon Capital Partners, invested through its Biomedical Translation Fund. Its commitment will be matched by George Health Enterprises.
George Medicines focuses on drugs for diseases such as cardiovascular and metabolic disorders that do not transmit from person to person and which kill an estimated 41 million people each year, according to the World Health Organisation.
The company’s approach involves combining existing treatments to increase efficacy. Its drug candidates include a proposed treatment for recurrent heart attacks, as well as programs targeting high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes.
George Medicines is one of four George Health units. The others are contract research services provider George Clinical, digital health product developer George Health Technologies and cost-effective dialysis equipment supplier Ellen Medical Devices.
The funding is expected to allow George Medicines to bring its three aforementioned drug candidates to market and will accelerate pipeline development at the other three George Health subsidiaries.
George Institute for Global Health was established in 1999 with the support of University of Sydney’s Medical School, though it has since added partnerships with University of Peking, University of Oxford, University of New South Wales and others.
Stephen MacMahon, professor of medicine at University of Oxford and principal director of George Institute, said: “This investment is very good news not only for George Health but, more importantly, for the hundreds of millions of patients suffering those chronic diseases that still cause most premature deaths worldwide.
“Mainstream pharmaceutical and medical technology companies are increasingly focussed on rare diseases, so George Health is filling a major emerging gap.”