Gates finances Aussie TB research


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THE world's richest man, Bill Gates, has agreed to fund the research of a small Australian biotechnology company at the front line of the fight against the killer disease tuberculosis.

The deal between the Gates-funded Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) and the Sydney-based Proteome Systems was due to be announced overnight at the international Bio 2005 conference in Philadelphia.

It will allow Proteome to fast-track the development of a rapid antigen-based diagnostic test for TB, a disease that is present in one-third of the world's population and kills 2million people a year.

The disease is on the march with several new drug-resistant strains.

Proteome's test aims to reduce the time taken to detect active TB from 24 hours to just three minutes while at the same time measuring accurately the severity of the infection.

This would address one of the major problems in treating TB - the ability of the airborne disease to spread faster than it can be identified.

Proteome's methodology - it involves a unique biomarker to distinguish TB proteins in infected people - can also produce a fast, accurate TB test for people also infected with HIV.

The global spread of HIV is one of the main reasons for the acceleration of TB, with the rate of infection in HIV-positive patients estimated to be 25-50 times higher than in HIV-negative patients.

Under the conditions of the Gates deal, Proteome would be funded to develop, clinically trial and register its TB test - in other words, get it ready for commercialisation. In exchange, the company - which has a market capitalisation of $16 million - would give FIND royalty-free rights to distribute its product in the Third World where TB infection rates are greatest.

Proteome's TB test is expected to be in prototype form within 15 months.

While a final figure on funding for Proteome is yet to be decided, Mr Gates and his wife, Melinda, have always had deep pockets for TB research, donating almost $US300million ($386 million) through their Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Proteome was founded in 1999 by Keith Williams and a team of scientists from Macquarie University's Centre for Analytical Biotechnology, who pioneered the field of proteomics during the 1990s.

The company was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in September last year.

The Gates collaboration was expected to be a confidence booster for Australia's strong representation in Philadelphia where the main game is to win funding for biotechnology research and development projects.

Queensland also featured at Bio 2005 overnight when Premier Peter Beattie released a biotechnology strategic plan for his state, which aims to have 16,000 Queenslanders employed in biotech industries by 2015 and the sector earning annual revenues of $4 billion by 2025.

Mr Beattie said Queensland wanted to establish itself as a global hub for tropical health and medical biotechnology, and for tropical and sub-tropical agricultural biotechnology.

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You don't hear so much about it in North America anymore (not since the '80s, and only in a few places even then), but tuberculosis is actually the second most deadly disease in terms of numbers in the world (only AIDS kills more). In the last two decades or so there've been like more drug-resistant forms of it, so that's basically what's kept it from being irradicated entirely in the '70s and '80s.

WAY TO GO BILL GATES, et cetera

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