Innovation and Excellence

oNKo‑innate was honoured as the Australian Emerging Company of the Year at the 2021 AusBiotech and Johnson & Johnson Innovation Industry Excellence Awards. The prestigious awards recognise leading innovators across Australia’s biotechnology and life sciences sectors, celebrating organisations that demonstrate scientific excellence, innovation, and meaningful impact.

The award acknowledges oNKo‑innate’s rapid growth and its pioneering work in harnessing the immune system - particularly natural killer (NK) cell biology - to develop next‑generation immunotherapies. As a discovery‑stage biotechnology company, oNKo‑innate has made significant strides in advancing novel targets and therapeutic approaches, underpinned by its strong academic foundation and strategic industry collaborations.

With a focus on how the immune system might be better harnessed to treat cancer, oNKo-innate has developed unique full-stack biology and drug modality platforms capable of discovering, validating and prosecuting new and emerging therapeutic targets. These capabilities have received international recognition through recent partnerships with Gilead Sciences and Kite Pharma. While also developing portfolio of internal assets, oNKo is setting the pace for local sustainable biotechnology and accelerating the creation of next-generation cancer immunotherapies.

As a young and dynamic start-up, oNKo-innate takes pride in challenging the status quo of how discoveries are translated into meaningful therapies. “We hope our biology-driven discovery and commercial vision add to the many start-up models considered by other local biotech founders” said Dr. Jai Rautela, CEO and co-founder of oNKo-innate. "As for oNKo, we’re delighted and very grateful to receive this award so early in our journey. It is truly a testament to our remarkable team”.

Full announcement:
Life sciences’ highest achievers awarded with prestigious Industry Excellence Awards