to all VCR sympathisers:I am going to forward this ARTICLE BELOW...

to all VCR sympathisers:

I am going to forward this ARTICLE BELOW to Paul Donaghue and the VCRSG in case they haven't read it.There is info here I hadn't read before about the Gov grants, the polticians and the views of heart surgeon Don Esmore (Alfred Hospital Melbourne) about the demise of ventracor.

8:15 AM, 29 Jun 2009
TONY BOYD BUSINESS SPECTATOR

Having the heart

The 80 Australians waiting patiently in the queue for a heart transplant in order to survive are this week likely to lose the choice of extending their lives with an Australian made artificial heart.

Two months after being appointed administrator of Ventracor, Steve Sherman of Ferrier Hodgson, has ceased operations of one of the few Australian biotech companies to have made it on the world stage.

Sherman began a winding up process last week including termination of key employees and notifications to regulators and hospitals. A group of Ventracor shareholders are desperately trying to get funding for a rescue but Sherman has effectively given up on them.

My colleague Alan Kohler has described the Ventracor situation as a modern Australian tragedy. He has written of the circumstances leading up to Sherman's appointment (Investors lose heart, April 2, 2009) and warned of the dangers of funding biotech with a bunch of small investors.

Missing from the discussion so far has been the role played by the Rudd government.

Ventracor could have continued operations with as little as $5 million in public funds to supplement funds from private investors. But the only program that fitted the bill, the Commercial Ready scheme, was scrapped in Kevin Rudd's first budget last year.

A replacement program to provide public funds to help bring Australian innovations to commercial success was announced in the May budget this year.

However, the new Commonwealth Commercialisation Institute, which won $196 million in funding over the next four years and $82 million a year thereafter, exists in name only. Industry Minister Kim Carr says the institute was set up to help support innovative firms in taking their ideas to the market.

He said the government would “be in dialogue with firms, the business community, and other stakeholders to plan for the institute and to leverage business investment”. But that dialogue and planning does not extend to assisting a company that needs the money now.

Carr is happy to boast about the May budget's historic 25 per cent increase in government spending on innovation and science to $8.6 billion but he can't find $5 million to help a company that is leading the world in its field.

Carr's office has been kept well informed of the Ventracor situation. But the Minister's office says the government cannot assist companies in administration and nor does it want to set a precedent.

This is not a debate about whether or not governments should be picking winners. We have gone past that. The government is spending about $50 million a year for the next four years on a new bureaucracy to pick winners in science but it won't assist a company that is saving lives and on the brink of getting FDA approval for commercial release of its artificial heart.

Heart surgeon Don Esmore, who has installed the Ventracor device in Australian patients at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, says Ventracor's collapse is a travesty for Australian industry and innovation.

He says Ventracor's left ventricular assist device (LVAD) is as good as anything in the world. Esmore has tried to discuss the issue with both sides of politics but to no avail.

Esmore says the Bridge to Transplant program using the Ventracor LAVD had saved the lives of 38 people. He says some of the devices have been in place for four years.

Sherman had hoped to sell Ventracor to American company Siqro Inc. But it failed to find bridging finance and the sale deed was terminated.

Sherman then turned to a group comprising shareholders and Horizon Healthcare to see if an earlier failed attempt to buy the business could be revived. But they failed to come up with bridging finance by last Tuesday triggering Sherman's move to cease operations.

A representative of the shareholders, Paul Donohoe, said at the weekend that efforts were continuing to raise the funds. He said the cost of buying Ventracor's assets should be less now because of the damage to the brand from the failed Siqro offer. Sherman has called a meeting of creditors for this Friday in Sydney to vote on either continuing a deed of arrangement so he can sell the residual assets or putting the company in liquidation.

The only positive thing that may come out of the Ventracor tragedy is that it will remind Australians of the pressing need to donate their organs to assist others.