Burns victim Julian Burton and burns surgeon John Greenwood high profile investors with high flying medical company
A medical product being used to treat bushfire victims across Australia has seen its share price soar – making millions for high profile investors including two South Australians of the Year.
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Two South Australians of the Year are leading figures in a hi-tech, high-flying medical company developing products for burns victims and making millions for investors.
Professor John Greenwood, head of the Royal Adelaide Hospital burns unit and former Sturt footballer and Bali bombings survivor Julian Burton are among the top investors of PolyNovo Ltd.
The company rose rapidly last year to become a darling of the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) and a Top 200 stock.
Dr Greenwood, is the inventor of the company’s best-selling product NovoSorb,
being used extensively across Australia, including in the treatment of victims of the recent bushfires.
The 2016 South Australian of the Year and his team at the RAH provided the clinical data that was crucial to the approval process to commercialise the product, that assists the regeneration of skin lost through extensive surgery or burns.
Professor Greenwood has held as many as 11 million PolyNovo shares.
When the stock reached a market high of $2.58 in October, on the back of an announcement of further international sales for NovoSorb, his portfolio investment was worth around $25 million.
Professor Greenwood, who has been operating around the clock on burns victims from the SA bushfires, told the The Advertiser NovoSorb is solely a South Australian invention.
“The chemistry was invented by CSIRO but the product was developed here in Adelaide – it was my design and my idea,” he said.
“The product is absolutely brilliant and that’s the reason they (PolyNovo) are successful and it’s all down to what we developed here in Adelaide.”
Dr Greenwood said the company had “dispensed” with his services in 2016 but confirmed he remained a major shareholder.
PolyNovo’s share price began 2019 at just 60 cents and despite dropping back from its high, has still trebled in a year to $1.97 (January 7, 2020).
The shares rose 10 per cent for the day on Tuesday this week.
It is only six years since PolyNovo – based in Victoria – saw its share price hit rock bottom at $0.20 after a failed trial of the controversial peptide at the centre of the Essendon Football Club’s drugs scandal.
Mr Burton, the 2010 South Australian of the Year for his charity work, told The Advertiser that, despite selling a large number of PolyNovo shares recently, he was still a major investor, holding around a quarter of his former six million shares.
“The company was on the cusp of being folded but the success of NovoSorb has turned it around,” Mr Burton said.
“But John’s the brains – I’m just the silent business partner – he’s the one who travels the world talking about it.
“We’ve had a remarkable journey together – and a bit of luck along the way.”
The pair has had a close association since Dr Greenwood performed extensive reconstructive surgery on the former footballer who suffered life threatening third degree burns to his body during the 2002 Bali bombing terrorist attacks.
Along with clinical nurse Sheila Kavanagh they founded the charitable Julian Burton Burns Trust the next year.
In May 2018, Mr Burton closed the Trust, that raised more than $20 million, announcing he would be working with Professor Greenwood developing “world-first” artificial skin technology on biotech company, Skin Tissue Engineering.
PolyNovo, ‘Company of the Year’ at the 2019 Innovation Industry Excellence Awards has several Top 20 investors with strong links to South Australia.
They include husband and wife business owners, Anthony and Michelle Kittel of REDARC Electronics based at Lonsdale.
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The worldwide market for ‘dermal scaffold’ products exceeds more than $1 billion and PolyNovo has announced it expects to significantly increase its market share again this year.
Last year the company supplied NovoSorb to three hospitals in New Zealand and two Australian Hospitals during the White Island tragedy in New Zealand.
The NovoSorb polymer was first developed by scientists at the CSIRO before being spun off into a commercial venture in 2004.
CSIRO holds more than four million PolyNovo shares.
PolyNovo’s leading competitor is Avita Medical, that makes the spray on skin product, ReCell, founded by prominent Perth burns surgeon and 2005 Australian of the Year, Fiona Woods.