The New Zealand Government and the Australian state and territory governments have also formed the Australia New Zealand Biotechnology Alliance to ensure a coordinated front.
Australia has key capabilities in human therapeutics, agricultural biotechnology, diagnostics, medical devices and bio-discovery. There’s an emerging strong focus on the environment and clean technology.
Other growth areas for the Australian biotech industry include intensive agriculture for biofuels, food and aquaculture, biosecurity, therapeutics targeting the aging population and issues such as obesity, regenerative medicine and wellness.
The global credit crisis is putting increasing pressure on biotechnology companies seeking funding as investors seek lower risk opportunities. Increasing consolidation is likely among the smaller and unlisted companies as funding becomes more difficult to obtain.
Most major international pharmaceutical companies and agribusinesses are represented in Australia. There are also a number of mining and food processing companies with specialist interests in biotechnology.
Getting your product into market
New Zealand biotech organisations and businesses should:
- consider partnering with an Australian company
- ensure adequate intellectual property protection
- understand and comply with Australia’s regulatory requirements.
Longer term there are a number of strategic to consider including:
- raising awareness of New Zealand’s capability
- developing a joint strategy with Australian companies and biotechnology organisations to promote the region and attract offshore investment
- building alliances for marketing and distribution to third markets.
Regulations
Overall, Australia provides a relatively open and transparent business environment encouraging the development of biotechnology innovation and its commercialisation. However, the regulatory impact of any particular New Zealand biotechnology exports would need to be assessed on a case-by-case basis.
The standard tax concession for R&D in Australia is 125 percent, although instances up to 175 percent is allowed. Access to R&D tax concessions has been extended to multinationals who do their R&D in Australia but hold the intellectual property overseas.
Opportunities
- New Zealand biotechnology companies generally have a positive reputation in the Australian market.
- Opportunities exist across a wide range of areas from supplying inputs to the sector to highly specialised products for sectors such as medical devices, the environment and agribusiness.
- Enabling technologies are also in demand such as diagnostic equipment, along with industry-related products such as edible coatings, novel foods and packaging and foodstuffs with added therapeutic value.
- Areas of potential collaboration include: clean technology, bio-prospecting, bio-security, environment, human therapeutics and devices and regenerative medicine.
Challenges
- There is limited awareness of the full extent of New Zealand’s biotech capability and Australian companies tend to be focused on seeking partners in the United States, Europe and Asia.
