The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of the healthcare sector, and Australian researchers are making strides in the field of biotech. Scientists have developed a therapy that uses virus cells to treat melanoma, lung, and bladder cancer, among others. The therapy works by introducing virus cells into a cancer patient, which replicates and eventually destroys the cancer cells.
While the research is promising, it is hard to keep medical breakthroughs in Australia due to the large amounts of money required to take the drugs to market. As a result, pharmaceutical companies like Merck have acquired Australian biotech companies, such as Viralytics and its creation, Cavatak, for large sums of money.
The healthcare sector in Australia has grown by 57% over the past year, and the market capitalisation of leading plasma therapy company, CSL, is increasing. While Australia is a world leader in medical research, the government needs to incentivise companies to stay in Australia to help with the commercialisation of the technology.
