Biotechnology in Australia

An aggressive focus on productivity is pushing biotechnology companies around the globe toward profitability. The maturing of the biotechnology industry will see a shift from small-scale bench-top research to higher productivity, large scale production. This is facilitated by process technology, an area of expertise inherent to chemical and biomolecular engineering. There is an increasing interest in biotechnology. Improvements in the financial markets will see increasing numbers of biotechnology companies and further employment growth. Australia is currently placed 6th in the world for biotechnology industry and is the largest in the Asia/Pacific region. Victoria in particular contains 39% of Australia's biotechnology companies (Hopper and Thorburn, 2003 Bio-Industry Review - Australia and New Zealand). Hard work will need to be done to maintain this position (i.e. in competition with the up and coming biotechnology industries of China and India). The U.S. Department of Commerce reports: "U.S. companies will find a clear cost advantage in conducting research and product development in Australia, as highly skilled labour costs a fraction of that in the U.S. or Europe. Salaries, the major component of R & D expense, are lower than in U.S. academic and commercial organizations". Australia is an attractive location for conducting all stages of clinical trials. The cost of conducting clinical trials in Australia is approximately one-third less than in the USA and EU. The practice and standard of medicine is equivalent to the USA and the EU. Trial protocols are immediately transferable and results are reliable. As Australia is located in the Southern Hemisphere, trials on seasonal-related illnesses, such as allergy/asthma or influenza conditions, can be conducted in alternate seasons, thereby accelerating therapy development times. Australian companies are forging commercial alliances with companies in Asia for marketing, distribution and manufacturing, providing market access into the Asian region.

A new generation of therapeutic biomolecules – bioparmaceuticals - are rapidly increasing in importance. The development pipeline towards a biopharmaceutical is facilitated by biochemical engineering. In 2002, the total pharmaceutical market was worth US$390 billion, of which biopharmaceuticals accounted for 7 % or $27.3 billion. By 2005, biopharmaceuticals accounted for 12% or $70.8 billion of a US$602 billion market. By 2010, about 50% of drugs in development will be bioparmaceuticals with the pharma market by this time expected to be worth $767.2 billion (Datamonitor, Pharmaceuticals: Global Industry Guide, Jan 2006).