Amplia is pleased to announce Amplia CEO and MD, Dr Chris Burns, together with Professor Andrew Wilks are co-recipients of the Prime Minister’s Prize for Innovation. They received the award at a Gala Dinner celebrating the Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science at Parliament House in Canberra last night.
Dr Burns and Professor Wilks received the Prime Minister’s Prize for Innovation in recognition of their outstanding contribution to drug discovery and development in Australia, with Wilks’ discovery of the JAK enzymes and their co-invention of the JAK inhibitor momelotinib, a drug to help treat a rare form of bone marrow cancer called myelofibrosis. The drug was discovered when the pair worked at Melbourne-based biotechnology company Cytopia.
Momelotinib was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2023 – making history as one of only two Australian-invented drugs to attract approval from the world’s peak health regulatory body.
Momelotinib was acquired by one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies for US$1.9 billion (AU$2.92 billion). It is currently marketed in the USA under the brand name Ojjaara.
Amplia CEO and MD, Dr Chris Burns, commented: “I am extremely honoured to be the co-recipient of the 2024 Prime Minister’s Prize for Innovation. Australia does a lot of fantastic early-stage research. What we’ve done in the discovery and development of momelotinib shows that incredible research can be translated here in Australia.”
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