A $41m investment in the world-first proteomics project, ProCan®, is predicted to boost the wider national economy and will increase Australia’s international competitiveness.
This week, in a combined announcement, the Australian Federal Government committed $20 million to ProCan, and the NSW State Government committed $21 million for the provision of new building space at Children’s Medical Research Institute (CMRI) in Westmead, Western Sydney, which will allow ProCan’s expansion.
ProCan is the world’s only research facility in high-throughput cancer proteomics and big data proteogenomics. It aims to change the way cancer is diagnosed and treated.
Researchers will analyse thousands of proteins simultaneously in each sample of up to 70,000 cancers of all types from patients worldwide and will use advanced computational techniques to improve diagnosis and predict the most effective treatments for each cancer.
CMRI’s Director Professor Roger Reddel said “We are grateful for the Commonwealth and NSW Governments’ generous support, which will enable ProCan to employ the highly-skilled staff in diverse fields needed to undertake this ambitious program, and has set the stage for the institute’s expansion, for ProCan to grow and reach its potential.’’
The funding allocated will create employment in Western Sydney in varied fields including biomedical research, pathology, software engineering, data science, and in the building construction, design and engineering sectors and will facilitate the training of Australia’s next-generation research scientists.
ProCan is also expected to have substantial economic benefits for the wider community. It aims to: replace the majority of today’s protein-based cancer pathology tests, with one multi-parameter test; address inequities in access to high-quality cancer diagnosis faced by patients in rural/regional Australia; and to find the most effective treatments for each patient’s cancer, at the time of diagnosis. This means reduced health system costs from fewer tests, less time in hospital, and by avoiding the use of ineffective treatments.
Consulting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers, conducted an economic benefit analysis of ProCan (using three common cancers as examples), and estimated $669 million in direct health cost savings for the Federal Government, cumulative over 10 years (and $697 million in savings for patients and carers, in out-of-pocket expenses and productivity benefits). Across all cancers, PwC’s conservative estimate was that ProCan would result in $383 million saved per year if the technology were to reduce cancer-related healthcare costs by just 5%.
ProCan’s ultimate objective is to translate its research findings into clinical applications, with the Australian economy set to reap the benefits of revenue-generation from new diagnostic and software technologies based on ProCan’s globally leading position in a key area of cancer precision medicine.
Children’s Medical Research Institute (CMRI) is dedicated to advancing the treatment and prevention of childhood diseases, so every child has the opportunity for a healthy start to life. For further information about CMRI click here.
