Industry applauds Labor policy to aid innovation

Labor announced yesterday its long-awaited policy on jobs and innovation, offering several reforms aimed at aiding innovative companies and biotechs.

The policy was welcomed by industry bodies AusBiotech and the Australian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (AVCAL), both applauding the promised injection of $350 million into the Innovation Investment Fund (IIF).

This fund is run by AusIndustry and co-invests with private venture capitalists to fund early-stage companies and aid commercialisation of research.

AusBiotech released a statement applauding the continuation of the IIF, especially in light of the imminent cessation of the current final round.

“The IIF program has been critical to the biotechnology industry to date. Access to capital, and at the right price, is a serious bottleneck to innovation, as Australia has substantially more innovation than capital.”

AVCAL also released a statement applauding the measure. “The new round of the Innovation Investment Fund (IIF) with $350m committed will be a great boost to venture investing in Australia, especially taking into account the equal amount of private capital that will be invested alongside,” it said.

The government will also make changes to venture capital tax concession programs to provide clarity and certainty to investors and facilitate angel investment.

It also announced a new platform to market the successes of Australian companies and to attract international investment and expertise.

AusBiotech also praised the government’s promise to reinvest any revenues it gains from supporting venture capital into future venture capital support.

“It is fantastic to see that IIF money generated by the sector and returned to the government will be reinvested to support new innovative enterprises,” said AusBiotech CEO Dr Anna Lavelle.

Another element of the jobs plan is to invest $500 million in establishing up to 10 Industry Innovation Precincts, which will seek to bring companies, research institutions and business service providers together.

AusBiotech noted that while such clusters can be highly successful, there is a level of sophistication required to make the most of synergies and to reach a critical mass of expertise.

The government also stated that it would spend $9.9m over five years implementing the recommendations of the Clinical Trial Action Group Report.

This includes expediting the standardisation of costs of clinical trials across the country and incorporating clinical research into the eHealth system, along with developing a national interactive web portal for facilitating trials.

It will also seek to streamline the approval process for initiating trials and harmonise standards across states and territories.

AusBiotech applauded the government’s support of the recommendations of the CTAG, noting that implementation is well overdue.  “The CTAG recommendations are good policy, for which the industry has been advocating for many years,” said Lavelle.

The full A Plan for Australian Jobs can be found on the government website.