AUSTRALIA

Your organization: Invest Australia
Australian Consulate
575 Market Street, Suite 1800

San Francisco, CA 94105
Phone: (415) 243 2076
Fax: (415) 536 1983
Web: www.investaustralia.gov.au
Contact: Fred Welz, Senior Investment Commissioner, North America
E-mail: fred.welz@investaustralia.gov.au

AUSTRALIAN BIOTECH OVERVIEW

• High quality science, capacity for international partnerships, cost effectiveness, and an open and efficient regulatory system, present a compelling case for pursuing biotechnology-related investment opportunities in Australia.
• Opportunities in agri-biotech (including plant and animal biotech, agrichemicals, food processing, functional foods, additives and nutrichemicals), biomedicine (including immunology, embryonic and adult stem cells, reproductive medicine, infectious diseases and oncology), diagnostics, medical devices and cross-sectoral fields such as clinical trials and proteomics.
• The number of core biotech companies doing business in Australia has more than doubled to 448 in just over five years, with 46% in human therapeutics, 16% in agriculture and 15% in diagnostics.
• Total market capitalization of Australian Life Science firms of A$26.5 billion in 2006, raising almost A$630million in funding.
• Stocks grew at a compound annual growth rate of 22.3% over the past 10 years – double the rate of their NASDAQ counterparts.
• Home to 612 medical device companies including both specialist market players and larger firms that have achieved worldwide commercial success, including Cochlear and ResMed.

PARTNERSHIPS

• 388 alliances announced by Australian biotech companies in 2006, of which 260 involved international partners.
• Among these were Cytopia and Novartis (Switzerland) announcing a global license and R&D collaboration valued at A$287million to develop small-molecule JAK3 kinase inhibitors for the prevention of transplant rejection and the treatment of multiple indications in autoimmune diseases; the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research and Genentech (USA) announced collaboration to develop a new class of broad spectrum cancer therapeutics.

BASIC RESEARCH

• Ranked amongst the top ten developed countries, and third in the Asia Pacific region, in generating basic research.
• Outranks major OECD countries (including the US, Japan, Canada and the UK) in public expenditure on research and development as a percentage of gross expenditure on R&D.
• Continues to develop ready-to-commercialize IP, from Gardasil, the vaccine for the human papilloma virus; to Relenza, the anti-influenza medication.

CLINICAL TRIALS

• Ranked by a recent EIU report ahead of six competitor nations (Germany, India, Japan, Singapore, UK and USA) as a location to conduct clinical trials.
• World class research institutes that include: the Baker Institute specializing in cardiovascular disease; the Garvan Institute for Medical Research undertaking disease-targeted research in cancer, bone and mineral, immunology and inflammation, neuroscience, diabetes and obesity; the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute researching immunology and the development and regulation of blood cells and neuronal systems; the Institute for Molecular Bioscience researching the genes and proteins of plants, animals and humans; and the Burnett Institute focusing on virology and communicable diseases.

BUSINESS CLIMATE

• Strong science base underpinned by world-class infrastructure and a large pool of scientific and technical personnel.
• Home to the most multilingual workforce in the Asia Pacific region.
• Government, right across Australia, that is strongly committed to biotechnology. The Australian Government provides R&D Tax Concessions and R&D Start Grants to the biotechnology sector as well as access to the COMET Program (Commercialising Emerging Technologies), and Commercial Ready grants. Additionally, the Government provides access to venture capital through the Innovation Investment Fund and Pre-seed Fund.

REGULATION & POLICY

• Robust regulatory system for biotechnology; customized information about biotechnology regulation in Australia is available at www.bioregs.gov.au.
• Modern and effective intellectual property regime ranked in the top six national systems in the world.
• A regulatory environment consistent with the International Conference for Harmonization, making it easier to register products and reducing the need to duplicate testing. Australia has a Memorandum of Understanding with the US Food and Drug Administration and a Mutual Recognition Agreement with the EU covering a range of industries, including medicinal products, GMP inspection and batch certification, and medical devices conformity assessment.
• National legislation governing embryonic stem cell research that was recently expanded to permit therapeutic cloning. A system for licensing SCNT research will be developed and implemented during 2007 by the National Health and Medical Research Council.
• A legislative framework for biodiscovery to demonstrate legal provenance of biological discoveries.
• A transparent food safety regulatory regime administered by Food Safety Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ).

FORTHCOMING EVENT
AusBiotech, Australia's biotechnology industry body, hosts an annual Biotechnology Conference and Business Partnering & Investment Forum. AusBiotech is being held in Brisbane, Queensland, from 21-24 October 2007.

INVEST AUSTRALIA – PROVIDING YOUR INVESTMENT ANSWERS
Invest Australia, Australia's inward investment agency, helped attract 94 new projects worth A$16billion in 2005-06. Invest Australia offers free confidential information on how to establish a business; introductions to key government agencies across Australia; identification of joint venture partners; organization and facilitation of site visits; and expert advice on industry capabilities.

MORE INFORMATION

AusBiotech - www.ausbiotech.org
Austrade - www.austrade.gov.au
Biotechnology Australia - www.biotechnology.gov.au
Invest Australia - www.investaustralia.gov.au
National Health and Medical Research Council – www.NHMRC.gov.au