Research Australia has responded to the consultation being undertaken by the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources to support the development of a Medical Products Manufacturing Roadmap under the Modern Manufacturing Initiative announced in the October 2020 Budget. Medical products is one of six strategic areas being targeted under the MMI for Government spending of $1.3 billion over five years.
The Consultation was undertaken using an electronic survey restricted the length of the response to each question. Research Australia’s response emphasises:
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- the opportunity to support the manufacture of products and materials for clinical trials;
- the opportunity this provides to scale to full scale manufacturing, keeping the full scale manufacturing of medical products developed in Australia on shore; and
- the opportunity to support manufacturing in high value medical products.
Research Australia’s submission is available here. These proposals were further developed in Research Australia’s January 2021 Pre Budget submission, available here.
The Government subsequently released the Medical Products National Manufacturing Priority Roadmap in February 2021. Research Australia’s proposal to support manufacturing for clinical trials as part of the Roadmap was adopted, and identified as a pathway to scaling up of manufacturing capability. The Roadmap is available here.