Australia needs a whole-of-government approach to life sciences to fully capture the sector's economic value and strategic contribution to national productivity, health security, and improved patient outcomes.
In its 2026 pre-budget submission, AusBiotech reiterated its call for the Federal Government to implement and fund policies that unlock the full value of Australia's life sciences industry.
- Develop Australia's first whole-of-government National Life Sciences Strategy to set policy priorities, eliminate gaps and overlaps, and bring Australia in line with other countries competing for global investment and building their national capabilities.
- Establish a whole-of-government Life Sciences Council in partnership with industry to drive the strategy, address broader sector challenges, ensure value for investment and achievement of the government's health, economic, security and employment priorities.
- Recognise life sciences as a priority under the Future Made in Australia Act, creating the focus and cross-portfolio coordination required to maximise the sector's contribution to Australia's economic resilience, national security and health.
- Invest in data to drive innovation to better understand global interdependencies, and improve policy and decision making.
Noting that the recommendations of the Federal Government's Strategic Examination of Research and Development and the National Health and Medical Research Strategy are yet to be released, AusBiotech also urged the government to allocate funding in the 2026-27 Budget to support timely and meaningful responses to these. AusBiotech has engaged widely in these processes and on behalf of our members advocated for both our four overarching measures as well as several immediate interventions including:
- Create priority regulatory and procurement pathways for Australian innovation.
- Support manufacturing, including establishing a tailored fund and single front door process for unsolicited proposals from industry.
- Reform of the Research and Development Tax Incentive (RDTI), including removing the upper threshold and extending support of the RDTI further down the pipeline.
- Introduce an R&D commercialisation incentive (patent box).
- Reduce barriers and establish incentives for superannuation fund investment.
AusBiotech CEO, Rebekah Cassidy:
"Australia's life sciences industry stands ready to scale, creating unprecedented economic and sovereign capability opportunities. But we need the Federal Government at the table, particularly as Australian innovators face geopolitical challenges, intensifying global competition, and a strong global pull for Australian innovation to scale offshore."
"Without coordinated, whole-of-government action, Australia risks losing to its global peers, many of which have already identified life sciences as a critical driver of economic growth, global competitiveness and national security. The United Kingdom, Canada, France, Denmark, Belgium, Spain, India, the Netherlands, the Republic of Korea and European Union have all developed whole-of-government or multi-portfolio life sciences strategies.
"Many now also have dedicated Life Sciences Councils or equivalents putting government and industry around the one table to lead whole-of-government policy development and integrated decision-making.
"In contrast, Australia has identified life sciences as a priority sector and a 'critical technology' but has neither a national strategy nor a coordinated, whole-of-government approach to the sector. Life sciences policy remains ad hoc, fragmented and split across at least nine different government portfolios.
"Tragically, it's a gap that persists despite Australia's clear competitive advantages in health and medical research, and the economic and sovereign capability opportunities stemming from the rapidly growing pipeline of start-ups and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), across biotech, medtech and digital health who are working to scale onshore."
Collaborating across the sector
AusBiotech also collaborated with a number of organisations on topic-specific submissions.
AusBiotech and MTPConnect called on the Federal Government to establish an Australia-UK BioBridge to fast-track, cross-border biotechnology, medical technology and services support to enable multijurisdictional R&D and trade. This would recognise the importance of international connections for the life sciences, especially in a world of heightened geopolitical uncertainty.
The concept for an Australia-UK BioBridge is included in the Innovation chapter (Chapter 20) of the Australia-UK Free Trade Agreement (A-UKFTA) – the first such chapter in the world. It builds on the inaugural Strategic Innovation Dialogue discussions in 2024, where Australian and UK officials discussed strategies for biotech innovation commercialisation, highlighting advances in complex precision medicines and materials technology, as well as greater regulatory harmonisation and supply chain resilience.
AusBiotech, together with the Medical Technology Association of Australia (MTAA), Pathology Technology Australia (PTA), the Association of Therapeutic Goods Consultants (ATGC), and Assistive Technology Suppliers Australia Ltd (ATSA), also called on the Federal Government to provide ongoing funding in the 2026-27 Federal Budget to ensure currently available Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) public good services are maintained at current levels.
This submission recognises that the TGA provides a range of services that cannot be cost-recovered, which are particularly important to SMEs, including those developing emerging technologies and devices.
AusBiotech's pre-budget submissions are available on our website:
- AusBiotech 2026-27 Pre-Budget Submission
- AusBiotech and MTPConnect 2026-27 Australia-UK BioBridge
- AusBiotech and industry partners 2026-27 TGA Public Good Funding
