Pharmaceutical
Research, trial, manufacture and export your pharmaceutical innovations from one of the largest, most innovative, and globally connected biomedical ecosystems in the world.
Melbourne has Australia’s largest biotech ecosystem, delivering a whopping 60 per cent of Australia’s pharmaceutical exports and taking advantage of a rapidly expanding Asia Pacific market. Global companies are now increasingly performing early phase clinical trials in Melbourne, thanks to its streamlined regulatory processes and diverse participant pools.
Now home to over 70 per cent of Australia’s top pharmaceutical and medtech companies1, Melbourne’s medical and science infrastructure enables advanced therapeutic research, development and commercialisation in all pharmaceutical areas including sophisticated drug, regenerative medicine and mRNA innovations.
Take your innovation from concept to commercialisation in Melbourne’s globally-connected biomedical ecosystem, where world-leading organisations such as Moderna, Merck, Benitec Biopharma, BioNtech, Roche, Life-Space and Siemens Healthcare are making the most of what Melbourne has to offer.
Sources
- MTPConnect, Medical Technology, Biotechnology & Pharmaceutical Sector Competitiveness Plan, April 202
Opportunities across the pharmaceutical supply chain
Accelerate your research into new treatments
- Develop new drugs and treatments that will shape the future of global healthcare leveraging the highly skilled talent and extensive infrastructure of Melbourne’s R&D ecosystem
- Accelerate your clinical research by accessing complimentary research expertise
- Melbourne’s time zone allows for seamless collaboration across borders. It conveniently crosses the North American and European business hours whilst aligning with the Asia Pacific region
Rapidly advance your product with pre-clinical and clinical trials
- Melbourne has one of Australia’s most ethnically diverse participant recruitment pools, which is helpful to quickly establish the efficacy of new drugs and open markets.
- One third of Australian clinical trials take place in Victoria, driven by Melbourne’s core capability in cancer, infectious diseases, and neuroscience-based diseases.
- Victoria’s streamlined system for the ethical review of clinical trials enables most applications to be approved within a 30 working-day benchmark
Leverage local pharmaceutical manufacturing capabilities
- Melbourne has a strong global reputation for innovative and advanced manufacturing in the pharmaceutical sector, including capabilities to develop and manufacture mRNA-based products.
- Ability to rapidly establish new facilities with direct connections to other established players across the manufacturing value chain
- Invest Victoria has a location specialist team that can assist you in finding a site suitable to your needs.
Access valuable growing markets
- Products and services developed here will benefit from Australia’s robust and globally recognised regulator, which opens doors to international markets by ensuring the quality, safety and availability of therapeutic goods used in or exported from Australia.
- Tap into an exponential increase in demand for sophisticated healthcare products across Australia and the Asia Pacific.
- Australia has a number of free trade agreements with Asian nations including China, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Indonesia. And a free-trade agreement between Australia and India is currently under negotiation. There are also FTA's with the United States, Chile and Peru.
Case studies: Life Science
Why develop and launch your pharmaceutical innovation in Melbourne?
Largest biomedical research ecosystem in Australia
Melbourne is home to world-leading biomedical integrated precincts including:
- Melbourne Biomedical Precinct (Parkville): One of the world's largest biotechnology hubs, the precinct is a world-renowned research centre with a focus on biomedical and social innovation. It is home to some of the biggest global names in the biomedical sector, with a powerful mix of over 40 hospitals, medical research institutes, biotechnology organisations and world-class universities.
- Monash National Employment Precinct:Established around Monash University, a thriving hub of key health, technology and business precincts, educational institutions and commercial operations, this innovation cluster is home to nationally significant research and technology infrastructure, including over 35 Monash Technology Research Platforms.
- Arden Medical Precinct: A hub for science, health, education and digital technology, and will be a large-scale employment and innovation hub, strategically developed to grow jobs and train workforce talent. The 46-hectare Arden Precinct will be on the doorstep of the Melbourne Biomedical precinct at Parkville and a new Arden Station and other surrounding sites are set to open by 2025.
Victoria is home to 22 globally renowned research institutes, including:
- Monash University: Ranked #1 globally as the world’s top university in Pharmacy and Pharmacology in the QS World University Rankings. Monash University is also ranked #44 in the world’s top 50 universities.
- The University of Melbourne: Ranked #11 globally for Medicine in 2021 and #1 in Australia for Medicine, and Anatomy and Physiology in Australia. The University of Melbourne is also ranked #34 in the world’s top 50 universities.
- The Doherty Institute: The first to isolate the COVID-19 virus outside of China a world-class institute combining research, diagnostic services and clinical care into infectious diseases and immunity.
- Murdoch Children’s Research Institute: One of the top three child health research institutes worldwide, focused on paediatric health conditions including diabetes, allergies, asthma, premature birth and mental health problems.
- The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Research (WEHI): transformative research discoveries for cancer, infectious and immune diseases, and home to the National Drug Discovery Centre and Advanced Genomics Facility.
- The Florey Institute: The largest brain research group in the Southern Hemisphere, this specialised research facility studies diseases including stroke, epilepsy, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and motor neurone diseases, depression and addiction.
- mRNA Victoria: A dedicated mRNA agency established to lead Australia’s mRNA research, development and manufacturing capability.
- Moderna’s first mRNA manufacturing facility outside of North America and The Advanced Genomics Collaboration initiative between Illumina and the University of Melbourne.
- Victoria has more clinical trials than anywhere else in Australia, with:
- over 1600 active commercially sponsored clinical trials
- over 300 clinical trial sites, including Australia’s largest provider
- over 1,000 active non-commercial clinical trials.
Access to Australia’s largest pharmaceutical skill base
- With around 90,000 life science employees, Victoria has the largest talent pool and deepest pharmaceutical expertise in Australia
- Victoria is home to 41 per cent of Australia’s pharmaceutical life science employees - more than any other state
- Victoria has 30 per cent more life sciences employees, more than NSW on a per capita basis
- Melbourne has a pipeline of talent from seven major teaching hospital networks including the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Monash Medical Centre, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and the Royal Children’s Hospital
- Specialised biotechnology training centres funded by the Australian Research Council
Ready access to regional growth markets that value Australia’s reputation for quality and safe products
- The Asia Pacific medical market is expected to rise to soon be worth US$137 billion per year surpassing European, the world’s second largest medical market.2
- It is predicted that over 60 per cent of the world’s population will be living in Asia by 2030 with one in four people over the age of 60 or older.
- Victoria’s pharma products have strong growth prospects in Asian markets, with a strong ability to capture price premiums due to Australia’s reputation for safe and quality products.
- Melbourne is a gateway to the Asia-Pacific, with non-stop air services and 15 free trade agreements giving Australian companies preferential access to fast-growing markets.
- Melbourne's time zone is perfectly aligned for doing business in the Asia-Pacific and globally, bridging the gap between the time zones of Europe and the United States.
- Victoria offers excellent availability of highly skilled, culturally aware, multilingual professionals, specialising in Asian and European languages.
Sources
2. McKinsey & Co The rise and rise of medtech in Asia, https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/life-sciences/our-insights/the-rise-and-rise-of-medtech-in-asia
Major investments in Victoria’s medical and science sector will drive even greater growth in years to come
The Victorian Government has invested:
- over A$15 billion in health and biomedical research as part of A$140 billion in the health system for well over a decade.
- A$14 billion in health infrastructure in Victoria – helping to further attract Australia’s leading pharmaceutical and biotech workforce
- A$2 billion in the Breakthrough Victoria Fund to drive innovation breakthroughs and biotech research
- up to A$1.5 billion to deliver a new Footscray Hospital – the largest ever health infrastructure investment in the state.
- A$800 million in a vaccine manufacturing facility building commenced by CSL Seqirus in Melbourne
- A$60 million in a manufacturing and industry development fund
- A$650 million in the new Australian Institute for Infectious Disease, Australia’s new Centre for Disease Control (CDC) to be built in Melbourne, with investments to build out clinical capabilities at the Australian Institute for Infectious Disease, the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness, Victorian Heart Hospital, and Victorian Melanoma and Clinical Trials Centre
- A$20 million in the Australian MedTech Manufacturing Centre (AMMC), a centre that will help local businesses to collaborate and pursue MedTech opportunities.
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