Beyond resources: WA aims to be medical and life sciences powerhouse
Western Australia, long celebrated as a world-leading powerhouse of natural resources, is now aiming to be a global leader in health and medical life sciences.
Nadine McGrath
4 min read
July 18, 2024 - 6:20AM
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WA looks to diversify beyond resources with vision to become global leader in health and medical life sciences
State’s health and medical life sciences sector more than doubles in past five years
Cook Government has several key initiatives encouraging investment in the sector
Western Australia, long celebrated as a world-leading powerhouse of natural resources, is now setting its sights on a new frontier – health and medical life sciences.
Known for its rich deposits of minerals and energy resources, WA's burgeoning health and medical life sciences sector was on show at the recent Bioshares Biotech Summit in Fremantle.
More than doubling in the past five years with ~244 companies employing nearly 24,000 people, the sector has become a key focus of the Cook Government's plan to diversify the WA economy beyond resources, supported by world-class universities, hospitals and medical research institutions.
Among these organisations are the University of Western Australia, Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research, the Lions Eye Institute, Telethon Kids Institute and the Perron Institute for Neurological and Translational Science.
The west is recognising its strong resources sector has played a vital role in its economic success and will continue to do so.
However, the WA Government says the health and medical life sciences sector presents an opportunity to "grow a new, globally significant and sustainable industry sector” to diversify its economy and build economic resilience, a statement central to a 2021 strategy to grow the industry beyond the end of the Covid-19 Pandemic. Vision to become world leader in sector
The WA Government says Perth holds a pivotal position in the health and life sciences sector due to its strategic location near Asian markets, shared time zones with over half of the world’s population, and strong history of medical innovation.
And let’s not forget what WA has learned from just its sheer size (covering the entire western third of Australia) and remoteness.
The State Government says WA’s expertise in remote operations in the resources sector is fostering creation of innovative medtech solutions leveraging automation, artificial intelligence, and system integration to enhance health and wellness outcomes.
The WA Health and Medical Research strategy 2023-2033 is a blueprint for the state’s vision to become internationally recognised as a leader in the health and life sciences field and according to AusBiotech advance along the value chain from research to product development and commercialisation.
This strategy has five goals including:
Building and empowering the workforce
Growing partnerships
Leveraging the ecosystem
Promoting research
Sustainable and diversified funding
In further support for the sector, the State Government has established the Western Australian Life Sciences Innovation Hub (WAIH), to accelerate growth of the medical technology, biotechnology and pharmaceutical sector, create new jobs, and support economic diversification.
And the State Government has also created the Western Australian Future Health Research and Innovation (FHRI) Fund, backed by the State’s sovereign wealth fund, enabling interest earned to be directed to WA-based health and medical research, innovation and commercialisation.
Orthocell (ASX:OCC) managing director Paul Anderson told * the sovereign fund is very important in underpinning growth in the sector.
“The government has successfully provided grant funding for pre-seed, seed, and developmental opportunities,” he says. Support for life sciences ecosystem
Anderson says WA has always had a really strong track record of invention in the medical and life sciences sector but in the past has lacked the supportive ecosystem required.
“As a consequence a lot of these ideas traveled elsewhere but recently we’re seeing a maturation of that ecosystem,” he says.
“The maturation has been organic so companies setting up in Western Australia to do their work but also from really strong State Government support.”
Furthermore, Anderson says the Federal Government has also been very supportive of the state’s health and medical life sciences sector.
“I don’t think it happens all that often when you get all things aligning and heading in the same direction and we seem to be in a scenario where that is the case,” he says.
“I have been trying to champion this ecosystem, the benefits of small investments from grants and the State Government which can in turn foster company growth."
Anderson says OCC is a great example, having received a State Government grant of $250,000 in 2008, which could be used to leverage other funds and build its clean room facility.
“That clean room facility enabled us to develop prototypes, conduct clinical studies and do early commercialisation work,” he says.
“We could translate these fantastic ideas and concepts we’d developed into products and procedures which are now being used globally.” History of success
Bioshares analyst Mark Pachacz told * WA has multiple research institutes and universities that have been the source of many biotech successes.
“The State certainly punches above its weight with achievements in the sector,” he says.
“By way of example, seven of the 15 US Food and Drug Administration approved drugs that had their origins in Australia came from WA."
Notable technologies with their origins in Perth include spray-on-skin, developed by renowned plastic surgeon and burns specialist Professor Fiona Wood and scientist Marie Stoner.
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