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3D-printed spinal implants set for SA production

Work is underway to open a medical-grade manufacturing facility to produce 3D printed titanium spinal implants in Adelaide, with the project led by a medical device entrepreneur and brother to the state’s Attorney General.

Sep 27, 2022, updated Sep 27, 2022

Gibran Maher said Additive Surgical plans to transform an inner-east Adelaide site with world-leading fine resolution printers were progressing, in a bid to stem the loss of valuable local medical Intellectual Property (IP) to overseas companies.

Maher, who on Monday night was named the first indigenous recipient of a 2022 Industry Leaders Fund scholarship, co-founded Additive Surgical with former Austofix medical devices manufacturer general manager Chris Henry.

The new site would not only produce the implants used to treat spine diseases but also provide South Australia with a much-needed opportunity to build prototypes for innovative medical device breakthroughs, Maher said.

“The biggest gap in the eco-system here in South Australia is there is no short-run prototyping facility (that meets medical grade regulations),” Maher said.

He expressed frustration that billions of dollars is spent on medical device research and development in Australia but “we sell the IP overseas as many don’t know how to commercialise it, we need to keep that IP here”.

Additive Surgical joint co-founder Gibran Maher.

Supply chain issues during the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the need for more sovereign medical device production and the medical sector was still struggling with long waits, Maher, whose older brothers are Kyam Maher, the state Attorney General, and Cameron Maher, said.

“We continue to have global supply chain issues in Australia, some products have more than a 12-month wait, some of the larger products with several different components where they are difficult to source, they are not being made anymore,” Maher said.

Australia imports 80 per cent of its medical devices, and Maher said having sovereign capability provided distinct advantages for health professionals.

Additive Surgical has established a joint venture with world-leading medical device company Tsunami Medical, based in Italy, to be able to access IP for device manufacturing in South Australia, along with the right to have local clinicians to work on innovating its baseline technology.

The company intended working closely with Flinders University and the Medical Device Partnering Program, and the Medical Devices Research Institute.

Maher relocated to SA with his family after working in Victoria for 12 years including as national sales manager and vice president global sales and marketing for medical 3D printing firm Anatomics.

He will use the ILF scholarship to complete an Australian Institute of Company Directors course and an executive training course in innovation at Columbia University in New York.

Other 2022 Industry Leaders Fund winners announced at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre last night include Makers Empire co-chief executive Anthony Chhoy, Tata Consultancy Services IT manager for the Santos site Jenal Dhar and NDE Solutions managing director Kimal Singh.

Half the 24 award recipients awarded the combined $350,000 from the fund, work in IT or hi-tech manufacturing – the highest percentage for the sector in the program’s 12-year history, ILF chief executive Geoff Vogt said.

“This is the strongest indicator yet that the State’s transition from traditional to high-tech and advanced manufacturing has been successful,” Vogt said.

Other 2022 scholars include:

Chief executive Trymoss Engineering Stephen Moss, Venergy Australia chief executive Matthew Wilkins, Derby Rubber chief executive Michael Clayton and Fivecast chief executive Dr Brenton Cooper.

Vogt said since the awards began from privately funded ILF, its scholars have created 2954 jobs in the past 13 years.

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