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SpeeDx Co-founders win prestigious Prime Ministers Prize for Innovation

Adjunct Professor Alison Todd and Dr Elisa Mokany have received the Prime Minister’s Prize for Innovation in the 2022 Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science. The pair are recognised for their outstanding contribution to public health through the invention of highly advanced molecular diagnostic tests, which are now distributed worldwide through their company SpeeDx.

SpeeDx tackles two major problems of modern medicine – cancer and antibiotic resistance. The company’s molecular technology has greatly enhanced opportunities for personalised clinical diagnosis and improved treatments for a range of infectious diseases and cancers. Their faster, more accurate and cost-effective solutions analyse and interpret genetic information, empowering clinicians to make more informed treatment decisions.

To date, SpeeDx’s technology has been used to test more than 10 million patients. This includes about 6 million tests for infectious diseases, 3.5 million of which were sold in Australia and another 4 million oncology tests sold by their European licensee. In Australia, more than 80 per cent of laboratories are using at least one SpeeDx test to report patient samples.

Adjunct Professor Todd and Dr Mokany are prime examples of successful entrepreneurs. Their commercialisation efforts have helped establish Australia as a global leader in molecular diagnostics, while giving Australian scientists the opportunity to work with large multinational healthcare companies.