Pharma sets out priorities to halt Australia's declining clinical trials

Industry group Medicines Australia’s chief executive, Brendan Shaw, has set out four key policy priorities to arrest the decline in the number of clinical trials conducted in Australia.

The priorities, outlined at Research Australia’s pre-New South Wales election Policy Forum are:

• Release and implementation of the joint industry-Federal Government Clinical Trials Action Group’s recommendations to simplify and streamline the regulatory process for setting up clinical trials.
• Implementation of the R&D tax credit, currently before the Federal Parliament, which would reduce by up to 10% the cost of eligible R&D.
• Rejection of the private members Bill in the Federal Parliament that proposes a ban on patents for biological materials, which would render industry funding of clinical trials untenable.
• Reversal of the NSW Government’s decision to double – from A$10 million ($9.98 million) to A$20 million - the minimum insurance cover for clinical trials in NSW.