A new National Health and Medical Research Strategy will be developed by the federal government as it commits $19 million to streamline regulatory processes through a ‘National One Stop Shop’.
The new initiates, revealed Thursday, are in a bundle of other health and medical research commitments announced by Health minister Mark Butler, as the “Health Research for a Future Made in Australia” package.
It aims to continue strong funding and improve regulatory systems in Australia in response to growing competition for health and medtech innovation.
The package is an amalgamation of several initiatives, including $473 million worth of grants out of ongoing programs funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF).
It also includes a 13-year commitment that the MRFF will fund $1.4 billion in new research, about $108 million per year. This will come out of its existing finances, which has already committed more than $3.2 billion in research funding since 2018.
A report summarising last year’s consultation on how to improve coordination between the two medical research bodies was also published, although no timeline for reform has been announced.
The incoming National Health and Medical Research Strategy will cover the entire sector, including government, industry, academia, consumers, and philanthropy.
Mr Butler said the new strategy would help Australia to continue punching “well above its weight” in health and medical research.
In the upcoming federal budget, $18.8 million will be included to establish the National One Stop Shop which will be a single national platform and set of regulations for undertaking clinical trials of new health and medical technologies.
Existing clinical trial regulation is separately managed by each state, increasing the regulatory burden on researchers. It will also incorporate the Clinical Trials Notification and Clinical Trials Approval schemes administered by the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
A new “embedded and automated next-generation national clinical trials registry” as well as a “sophisticated monitoring and reporting functionality for different users” will also be featured. Automation of data, reports, and processes to support National Clinical Trials Governance Framework accreditation will also be included.
The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care convened a Health and Medical Research Advisory Group to lead development of the National One Stop Shop. Chaired by former chief scientist Professor Ian Chubb, it began initial consultation in September 2021.
Professor Chubb, who is also the Australian Academy of Science’s Policy Secretary, on Thursday said that the One Stop Shop will help Australia remain attractive to researchers and companies in the face of reforms in other jurisdictions such as the European Union.
“Australia can’t rest on its oars and think our history alone will carry us through. The One Stop Shop is an important means for our federation to revise, reset, cohere and lead,” Professor Chubb said.
“Australians invest in medical research. Clinical trials are a key step in the pathway that turns knowledge and understanding into new and potentially better treatment options for Australians, wherever they live.
“The One Stop Shop will let Australia turn a good clinical trials framework into an excellent one that will position Australia well in a world in which competition to host clinical trials is growing inexorably.”
The Research and Development Taskforce – a collaboration of industry bodies AusBiotech, Medicines Australia and the Medical Technology Association of Australia – welcomed the funding for the National One Stop Shop, stressing that “appropriate and sustainable” funding is key to realising the platform.
“The National One Stop Shop will help actively position Australia as a globally competitive R&D destination bringing the latest medical therapies to Australian patients and creating further jobs and growth in the sector,” the taskforce said in a statement.
Of the $473 million of research funding announced on Thursday, $62 million is being shared by 26 clinical trials under the MRFF’s clinical trials activity initiative, while the other $411 million is being shared by 229 researchers through the NHMRC’s investigator grants program.
The 13-year MRFF commitment does include an initial outlay of $53.6 million over four years from 2024-25 to target “women’s health including menopause, pregnancy loss and infertility, novel treatments for chronic pain, and treatment for alcohol and other drugs”, according to the federal government.
It will also include the creation of two 10-year missions focused on ‘low survival cancers’ and ‘reducing health inequities’ respectively. Funds will also be awarded through existing MRFF streams.
