Clarendon Lawyers has partnered with Startup61 to develop the HealthTech Accelerator Program, an in-hospital accelerator program aimed at assisting entrepreneurs in the health technology space developing a start-up.

Speaking with Lawyers Weekly, Clarendon director Alex Bean said that Melbourne is undergoing ‘regeneration’ in its hospital precinct, with hospitals and universities dedicated to developing health technology and now looking to commercialise it.

“There is naturally considerable interest around the commercialisation of early stage health technology and bio technology intellectual property,” he said.

While the program is an opportunity too increase Clarendon’s exposure, Mr Bean said that the firm has really invested in the program on a philanthropic basis.

“[For] law firms I think there’s some duty to help early stage companies, give them a bit of a kick-start,” he said.

“As a private equity and venture capital lawyer, I like to work with founders and investors at all stages of a company’s life cycle and am particularly passionate about seeing start-ups succeed.

“So it was a no brainer, when given the opportunity to partner with and support Startup61 in this collaboration with Melbourne Health.”

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Thirteen start-ups are participating in the eight-week program, which officially kicked-off in October. The program provides working space, mentoring and networking opportunities with clinicians at Melbourne Health.

“The value of the program is really targeting acceleration within a hospital setting and connecting health professionals with people with great healthtech ideas,” said Mr Bean.

“I think it is a sign of the growing ambitions of Victoria, as well as Australia more broadly, to be innovative, forward thinking and to create a really good eco-system around health technology that is ultimately going to benefit the economy and also our healthcare system fundamentally.”