Brisbane lays claim to a rather impressive title: The largest health ecosystem in the southern hemisphere.
It has quite the reputation for medical innovation — the groundbreaking cervical-cancer HPV vaccine Gardasil, for example, was developed through pioneering research led by Professor Ian Frazer and the late Dr Jian Zhou at the University of Queensland in Brisbane — that can only be matched by its promising future.
Brisbane’s knowledge corridor is a hub of health-sector innovation.
Indeed, world-class universities and research facilities, backed by strong government support, make the ideal runway for Australia’s next generation of groundbreaking medical technologies. Operating within a robust economy that is set for even more growth is another big tick in the pro column for establishing yourself — and your business — in Brisbane.
A force for growth
The Brisbane 2024 State of the City report underscores the city’s transformation into a launchpad for successful emerging businesses generating healthy returns and reveals an attractive growth trajectory.
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Statistics such as 34 per cent GRP growth in the decade to 2031 and 41 per cent real export growth forecast in the same period, building to a projected economy worth $275 billion by 2041, reflects Brisbane’s status as Australia’s fastest-growing major capital city over the past decade.
This is underpinned by a $25 billion infrastructure pipeline, including port expansions, Cross River Rail and Brisbane Airport upgrades to seamlessly connect the city to the rest of Australia, Asia and valuable export markets.
In addition, the hosting of the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games represents the largest infrastructure investment in Queensland’s history that the state government plans to invest in the city’s future beyond the Games.
With economic growth comes opportunity
All the above contributes to Brisbane’s success as a renowned innovation hub. It’s recognised as a Global Top 40 Innovation City, far outpacing Australia’s other major cities with 71 innovation hubs per million people, compared with 48 and 40 per million people for Melbourne and Sydney, respectively.
Brisbane Economic Development Agency (BEDA) CEO Anthony Ryan says the success of the city’s medtech companies is a shining example of Brisbane’s pre-eminence in innovation.
“We’re a global powerhouse in research, pioneering world-first health technologies, from diagnostics and drugs to devices and digital health. Our rapidly expanding health sector is fuelled by cutting-edge research institutes and a talented workforce, creating a dynamic environment where bold ideas become transformative, life-saving realities,” he says.
Central to that success is Brisbane’s knowledge corridor — a 5-kilometre-long inner-city hub that houses more than 100 health and biotech facilities, and a globally competitive life sciences sector, including world-class hospitals, research institutes and university precincts.
One such global leading facility is the Translational Research Institute (TRI) within the Boggo Road Innovation Precinct — a critical component of the knowledge corridor.
Significantly, Gardasil co-creator Prof Frazer was the TRI’s inaugural CEO when it was established in 2012 with the goal of translating medical research and development into evidence-based treatments. The upcoming Translational Manufacturing at the Translational Research Institute building (TM@TRI), will become Australia’s largest translational research campus on completion in 2026.
Based at the TRI, Kimaritec, a pre-clinical-stage small molecule therapeutics company, is one company benefiting from Brisbane’s concentrated expertise. While its main focus is on potential treatments for cancer, its technology has the potential to be used to target many different diseases.
“Access to cutting-edge equipment, clinical networks and scientific minds accelerates our path to patients,” explains Kimaritec co-founder and Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Associate Professor Sally-Anne Stephenson.
Needle-free vaccine pioneer Vaxxas is a posterchild for Brisbane’s formula for commercial success.
“The Queensland government’s support of new ideas and unproven technologies, and the grants they give us and other start-ups in the ecosystem, is unparalleled,” adds Daniel Timms, the founder and chief technical officer at BiVACOR, which made headlines in 2024 with the first successful artificial heart transplant.
BiVACOR started its life in Brisbane back in 2001. “The state government’s grants were the stepping stone to BiVACOR getting larger federal government grants. I have not seen that happen anywhere else in the world,” Timms says.
The business is now set to transform this operation and save countless lives around the world.
Then there is Microbio, an Australian biotech company developing InfectID — a novel molecular diagnostic technology that can rapidly diagnose bloodstream infections that may cause sepsis, allowing for targeted treatment and thereby improving patient outcomes.
Microbio, which is making strides in the global commercialisation of its QUT-developed technology, is looking forward to building on the foundations it established in Brisbane over the past decade.
Noting that the city is globally recognised for its research quality and commercialisation capabilities, Microbio executive director, founder and CSO Flavia Huygens says, “We’re eager to play a role in building Brisbane’s innovative biotechnology and biomedical ecosystem.”
And a leading example of that formula for commercial success is needle-free-vaccine pioneer Vaxxas. Its high-density microarray patch technology, born from collaborations with Brisbane’s universities, now fuels a state-of-the-art biomedical manufacturing facility in Brisbane, which is a blueprint for the company’s global expansion.
“We attribute our success to the incredible pool of talented scientists and engineers from Queensland’s universities,” says CEO David Hoey.
Indeed, BEDA’s Ryan notes the calibre of the city’s medtech companies is attracting significant investor interest, which is successfully converting to capital investments.
“Brisbane is where the future of healthcare is being created. It’s where there are unparalleled opportunities for innovators and investors who want to be part of the next big breakthrough.”
Clickhere to read more about how Brisbane is Alive with Opportunity.
