BiVACOR that is producing the device which is aiming to become a never-to-be-replaced artificial alternative for human heart transplants, revealed today it was moving its international office, software, electronic hardware and blood compatibility research and development to the Gold Coast

The company’s move to the Gold Coast Health and Knowledge precinct, that links Griffith University and two major hospitals, comes ahead of first trials of the durable device in patients.

BiVACOR CEO Daniel Timms said the company had recently raised a further $22 million to develop the device and wanted to bring the technology to the first Australian patients through an international consortium of universities and hospitals.

“We’re going to be able to create a device here where the heart won’t fail anymore. It will be a situation where the patient can rely on the heart that has been implanted into them to be able to pump the blood that they need for the rest of their life,” Timms said.

“And that has been a challenge, not only for artificial heart technology, but even for heart transplantation. There are instances of rejection of donor hearts and the life span of a donor heart isn’t infinite either.”

Timms said the device was based on one spinning disc with blades or a propeller on one side that acted like the heart’s left ventricle to pump blood to the body, and blades on the other side that pumped blood to the lungs, like the heart’s right ventricle.

The spinning disc was levitated in a magnetic field and was the only moving part in the device.

There was no mechanism in the device to make it spin, which meant there was no mechanical wear and tear, he said.
“That’s the biggest limitation on artificial heart technology today… that eventually they will wear out and break. But with this one, it has no mechanism to wear out so there’s no mechanical wear,” Timms said.

BiVACOR is one of the three companies that have just moved to the Gold Coast precinct, supported by local investment attraction incentives.
The influx of the international companies comes on the tail of fears the precinct – funded under a partnership between the City of Gold Coast, Queensland Government and Griffith University – was at risk of turning into a multi-billion dollar high-tech dud.

It was meant to be a key legacy of the 2018 Gold Coast Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and was touted as injecting more than $1 billion a year locally and being pivotal in helping transition the Gold Coast’s economy away from its reliance on tourism. However, until now, it had failed to attract a significant number of global operations.

Timms said Queensland was turning into a magnet for global research companies looking for bases outside America and Europe.

“That facility doesn’t exist very often around the world where you’ve a got a university, hospital and an innovation space within walking distance of each other. It was very attractive to us,” he said.

“After coming back from the US where we work very closely with the world-renowned Texas Heart Institute, to see the expansion of this area was really attractive for us to bring our technology back to work with a world-leading laboratory at Griffith, which didn’t exist when we started almost 20 years ago.”

Griffith University Vice Chancellor Professor Carolyn Evans said locating industry near major hospitals and the university was critical to taking research out of the lab and providing jobs for graduates.

“There is an increasing focus on linking university research with industry for commercial outcomes and social impact,” Evans said.

BiVACOR has joined San Franciso-based Precise Light Surgical, that is developing a novel surgical laser technology, and Netherlands blockchain technology company TYMLEZ in moving operations to the Gold Coast.