Australia’s clinical trials sector spent $1.6 billion in 2022, providing cutting-edge therapies to 90,000 patients. With world-class infrastructure and regulatory standards, the industry is key to global medical research. Future priorities include streamlining approvals, expanding patient participation and growing the workforce, ensuring Australia remains at the forefront of innovation.
Discover more about Australia's role in advancing clinical trials.
Australia has consistently punched above its weight in clinical trials. We conduct among the highest trials per capita in the world. This global reputation as an attractive clinical trial destination is underpinned by several factors. A strong reputation for the quality and global standing of its investigators and the networks that support them, highly developed research infrastructure and systems.
High quality data collection and overall compliance with Good Clinical Practise guidelines, which ensures that data collected in Australian trials can support submissions to international regulators, including the FDA and EMA. Specialised and dedicated early phase infrastructure that enables the delivery of timely, high quality trials, supported by streamlined processes and private ethics committees. The convenience and speed of the Therapeutic Goods Administration's Clinical Trial Notification Scheme, which enables the faster start up times that are particularly crucial for early phase trials.
The financial support provided by the Australian Government's extension of its research and development tax incentives improving Australia's cost competitiveness. The clinical trials sector is a vital contributor to Australia's economy. As we have highlighted in our recent report that we've published in collaboration with MTP Connect, a total of $1. 6 billion was spent on clinical trials in 2022, a figure that has grown at 5 1/2% per annum over the last seven years.
The sector employs nearly 8000 Australians that support the nearly 1850 trials that are started each year across Australia. Approximately 90, 000 Australians receive access to innovative therapies through these clinical trials that they would not otherwise receive. The growth in the clinical trial sector in Australia has been stagnant or declining since 2019. Our recent report with MTP Connect highlighted a number of priorities that are required to overcome the challenges and ensure continued growth in the clinical trial sector.
The first priority is to improve the efficiency in TROLLS data through streamlined ethics and governance approval processes. The second priority is to increase patient awareness and involvement in clinical trials and this can be done through innovative approaches through for example, the use of Tele trials and through decentralised trials. The third is to grow the workforce and in particular clinical trial associates and coordinators to ensure that we have the workforce to be able to deliver growth in the clinical trial sector in Australia. 4th priority is to enhance data transparency and to better track metrics to enable us to understand outcomes in relation to patient participation in trials and where there are blockages to participation so that initiatives can be designed to address those.
The national One Stop Shop initiative announced by the Federal Government in late 2023 is a step in the right direction as it addresses three out of the four priorities. We're excited by the future outlook for Australia's clinical trial sector. There's a growing wave of innovative and complex therapies and medical devices such as cell and gene therapies and surgical robotics, and these will require high quality clinical research to be successfully commercialised and brought to patients. Innovative trial design, such as platform umbrella basket trial designs that can be used with or without adaptive methods, are growing and revolutionising trial processes.
Australia has the opportunity to leverage its strength to capitalise on all of these trends over the coming years and that has us excited.
