CSL welcomes the Federal Government’s Budget commitment to introduce a Patent Box that will encourage onshore commercialisation and manufacture of Australian medical research.
A Patent Box policy will support local manufacturing of innovative medical products and help counter the off-shoring of Australian intellectual property (IP) and highly skilled jobs.
Australia’s policy environment for investment into commercialisation of medical research needs this reform in order to compete with countries such as the UK, Switzerland, France, Ireland, Singapore and other peer nations, which offer targeted incentives designed to encourage the commercialisation of home-grown IP.
The introduction of a Patent Box in Australia will complement the existing R&D Tax Incentive by focussing on the revenue-generating phase of the medical research value chain. When products progress to manufacture and sale, the economic returns are substantial. Ownership of the intellectual property, as well as manufacturing, offers substantial economic benefits to the host nation through royalties, license fees, supply chains, jobs, and capital investment.
“Australia has world-recognised expertise in medical research. However, policy settings need to incentivise the onshore commercialisation and manufacturing of that research”, said Dr Andrew Nash, CSL Chief Scientific Officer.
“CSL welcomes the introduction of a Patent Box which will help decrease the flow of intellectual property from local medical research going overseas. It will drive the growth of advanced manufacturing jobs, capital intensive investment and sovereign capacity in medical technology and biotechnology manufacturing.
“It’s an important reform and will help to ensure that the Australia of the future can more easily turn good science into products, professions, and local, advanced medical manufacturing capacity. It is an especially significant boost to the policy environment as the country navigates its way out of the pandemic”, said Dr Nash.
