Western Cape Business 2018 edition

SPECIAL FEATURE
Technology and Wesgro. This geographic concentration
will focus on medical technology. As things
stand, the medical industry is quite widely spread
around the greater Cape Town area. One of the bestknown
companies is Real World Diagnostics, which
is in Brackenfell. It makes rapid In Vitro Diagnostics
(IVD) test kits for drugs, pregnancy, malaria and HIV.
The Real World Development Service does research
and development and feasibility studies.
The three examples from the introduction to this
article are based in:
• University of Cape Town and Observatory: A cheap
plastic heart valve was developed by the Christiaan
Barnard Cardiothoracic Surgery Department of
the university and the company making the valves
is Strait Access Technologies, with headquarters
in Observatory. This extraordinary device will
undergo clinical trials in 2018. The valve is inserted
through a small incision and travels into position
propelled by a balloon. It will assist millions of
people with rheumatic heart disease.
• Faure, between Blue Downs and Khayelitsha:
Research on radiation treatment of cancer using
Gold Nano particles is happening at iThemba
LABS, a National Research Foundation facility. In
2017, iThemba LABS celebrated three decades
of operating the Separated Sector Cyclotron
(SSC). The SSC produces accelerator-based
radiopharmaceuticals and enables the study of
the internal structure of atomic nuclei.
• Wynberg: Posture support wheelchairs
and positioning devices that allow greater
independence and participation of disabled
people are made by Shonaquip. In 2016
Shonaquip won the Social Enterprise in the
Premier’s Entrepreneurship Recognition Awards
(PERA). Together with the Uhambo Foundation,
Shonaquip forms a social enterprise that makes
equipment that caters for the particular needs
of disabled people. Buggies and wheelchairs
made to modular design make it much easier
to customise the product, adjusting for the
needs of the user and the terrain. Established in
1992 by Shona McDonald, Shonaquip won an
innovation award at the Design Indaba (2014)
for the Madiba2Go Buggy and the ECIC/Cape
Chamber of Commerce Exporter of the Year
competition in 2015.
Shonaquip is one of seven companies that are
currently members of the Western Cape Medical
Devices Cluster, a grouping recognised and funded
by the Department of Trade and Industry’s Cluster
Development Programme (CDP).
The CEO of the Medical Devices Cluster, Allan
Howard, says that the key goals of the Cluster in its
first phase are to help small businesses get certification,
to promote the skills needed in device manufacturing
and to settle on a combined approach to
advancing the sector. A certification facility at the
proposed Health Park would be of great benefit to
small companies, allowing them to focus on manufacturing
and sales.
The Cluster was founded in 2016 with the assistance
of several bodies: Wesgro, the Western
Cape Department of Economic Development and
Tourism, the National Department of Science and
Technology and Kaiser Economic Development
Partners. The cluster is the first of its kind in the
province.
The Western Cape’s other two universities
also have companies which focus on the medical
or biomedical sector. An example is AzarGen
Biotechnologies which was founded by a
Stellenbosch University graduate. In partnership
with NYSE-listed iBio Inc, the company will develop
surfactant protein to treat neonatal respiratory
disease syndrome.
According to Wesgro, 93% of medical device
products are currently imported.
51 WESTERN CAPE BUSINESS 2018