Joint position to grow Australia's biopharmaceutical industry

AusBiotech and Medicines Australia have provided a joint statement to the Minister for Industry, the Hon Ian Macfarlane, proposing steps that the federal government could take to build a stronger biopharmaceutical industry in Australia.

The letter says that much of the future “growth in the market for pharmaceutical and biotechnology products will come from Asia, and Australia could not be better placed to meet this demand. It is conveniently located, is home to a world-class research infrastructure and has a well-established reputation in the region for manufacturing safe, high-quality medicines and vaccines, and the associated clinical trials.”

With the right policies, “Australia could significantly grow its exports of medicines and vaccines, especially to Asia, and could even double its share of the global biopharmaceutical market over the next decade. This could mean an increase in Australia’s annual biopharmaceutical R&D spend from $1 billion to $2 billion, and an increase in annual biopharmaceutical exports from $4 billion to as much as $8 billion by 2024,” it states.

The statement points to three important pillars for the strategy to build a strong biopharmaceutical industry in Australia:

• Secure the existing investment we have in Australia to ensure it stays here;
• Encourage the development of Australia’s emerging biotechnology sector; and
• Attract new direct foreign investment to Australia.

AusBiotech and Medicines Australia called on the Australian Government to take the following steps:

Step 1:  Ensure a stable, predictable and efficient business operating environment

• ‘Do No Harm’: commit to ongoing PBS policy stability.
• Ensure the predictability and efficiency of the PBS listing process.
• Implement all 11 of the Clinical Trials Action Group’s recommendations within the next 12 months.
• Maintain the R&D Tax Incentive in its current form.

Step 2:  Enable growth in the Australian biotechnology sector

• Strengthen Australia’s intellectual property system (IP) by rejecting efforts to limit patent extensions and extending the term of data exclusivity for small and large molecules.
• Restore the Employee Share Scheme (ESS) to its pre-2009 form by June 2014.

Step 3: Enact globally competitive incentives to encourage investment in R&D, high-tech manufacturing and public-private partnerships

• Establish a tax incentive regime that builds on the R&D Tax Incentive to encourage innovative companies to invest in R&D-based high-tech manufacturing, bringing or keeping the related intellectual property, jobs, facilities and exports to/in Australia.
• Implement policies to encourage public-private research partnerships in Australia.