On Tuesday, 19 November 2024, AusBiotech and MTPConnect jointly delivered Australia's first National Biotech and Medtech Development and Commercialisation Summit in Canberra.
The Summit brought together representatives from Australia's life sciences industry, including start-ups, SMEs, multinational companies, service providers, investors, manufacturers, research institutes, universities, and peak bodies.
Representatives from the federal departments of Health and Aged Care, Industry, Science and Resources, Home Affairs, and state governments were also valuable contributors. In addition to the conversation in the room, many written submissions were made before the Summit.
The Summit discussion focused on the following four topics, detailed in the Summit Discussion Paper: Protecting and Advancing Australia's Future Health, Moving Beyond Early-Stage Development and Commercialisation, Growing the Capital Pool and Optimising Its Use, and Building a 'Development' Focused Workforce.
We have seen an increasing convergence of national and global factors impacting life science innovation, including the combined pressures of pandemics, stressed supply chains, chronic disease, aging populations, climate change, geopolitical tensions, and rapid technological advancement.
In response, the industry called for renewed conversations – guided by data, contemporary insights and unified solutions – to harness the synergies between our sector's growing maturity, the global context and Australia's economic, health, security and science priorities to drive development and commercialisation outcomes.
In wrapping up the Summit, AusBiotech CEO, Rebekah Cassidy, and MTPConnect CEO, Stuart Dignam, reflected on the three key themes emerging from the day, including the need for:
- A national strategy for the life sciences sector
- Industry to be a unified, strategic and sophisticated partner
- Greater leverage of the industry's expertise and knowledge
Today, we are releasing a short joint Communique that seeks to capture the key themes from the day, however, there is much more work to do. The insights and ideas generated at the Summit and the responses to the Discussion Paper are now being fully collated, distilled and prioritised to generate actionable, forward-looking recommendations.
These will inform a joint pre-budget submission for the 2024/25 Federal Budget and an upcoming White Paper, outlining a roadmap for advancing Australia's life sciences industry. All of this work will build upon the Biotechnology Blueprint produced by AusBiotech in 2022.
AusBiotech and MTPConnect will keep the sector up to date with our work and collaborate with partners further in the coming months.
