National Reconstruction Fund: Response to Consultation Paper on Implementation

This submission responds to the Australian Government’s consultation paper on implementing the National Reconstruction Fund (NRF), focusing on the priority area of medical products and its $1.5 billion target investment in medical manufacturing. Research Australia maintains that the NRF can help build a mature domestic medical products industry, pointing to recent investments by Moderna, CSL, Sanofi and BioNTech and a New South Wales RNA pilot facility. It proposes that the priority area include medical equipment, diagnostics, pathology and research reagents and medical software, noting that reagent imports rose from $569 million in 2019 to $1,074 million in 2021 amid COVID-19 testing shortages. It cites Australia’s position as the 23rd largest pharmaceutical exporter, with 0.55% of global exports, against imports of USD 7.38 billion in 2019. The submission maintains that the NRF should retain intellectual property in Australia and invest for the long term through to manufacturing rather than plan exits through licensing to multinationals, and that the long lead times and specialist expertise required to evaluate medical products deter private investment. It makes four recommendations: that Ministers seek advice from the future Centre for Disease Control on medical products with a critical unmet need for domestic manufacturing; that the investment mandate identify areas with potential for profitable domestic manufacturing; that the Government create a National Medical Products Industry Plan to coordinate fragmented research and commercialisation programs; and that it develop a medical products research, development and manufacturing workforce plan, building on MTPConnect’s REDI program.