Avalia won the Innovation Excellence in Research award while MARS Bioimaging won the Innovation in Health and Science and Emerging New Zealand Innovation awards at the NZ Innovation Awards last week. Powerhouse Ventures is an investor in both of these companies.
The accolades follow MARS Bioimaging’s success at the Champion Canterbury Business Awards earlier this month, where it took three awards.
MARS Bioimaging has developed a spectral CT scanner that is able to deliver colour x-ray images. It does so with less radiation and lower costs than the traditional CT scanning.
It has been developing its technology since 2007, and has based it on the Medipix3 detector chip developed at European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN.
Avalia is developing vaccines that are able to activate powerful immune cells and treat diseases. Avalia’s first vaccine product in development is a cancer vaccine to treat patients suffering from HPV-associated cancers. Its vaccine approach has the potential to induce patient responses against HPV cancers that are not currently responsive to checkpoint immunotherapy.
Powerhouse chief executive Paul Viney said the wins underlined the huge potential of both companies. “I’m thrilled by the successes of these two companies, and congratulate all of those who have worked so hard on these innovations.
“Powerhouse is proud to support New Zealand companies which are making a difference in the world.”
