Travelling provides many benefits, including the opportunity to see how other countries tackle similar problems...
Encouraging healthcare innovation is one such challenge.
Having attended the HealthXL Global Gathering, I had the opportunity to see the Irish government's passion for attracting and growing healthcare companies. They recognise it is their nation's interest to find new and existing business, and grow a community. They have experience in courting and fostering the pharmaceutical market.
Thus, the latest move by the Australian Government is somewhat baffling... On one hand, they recognise the mining boom is drawing to a close, they see that the nation's future is no longer in manufacturing, for our wages and standard of living are significantly higher than other manufacturing economies.
On the other hand, they have some how fostered a handful of super - healthcare companies: multimillion dollar niche subsector superstars such as Cochlear and Resmed. The university / education and medical research sectors should take a bow.
The latest announcements from the Australian Government and the from @AusIndustry roadshow that followed shows a desperately underprepared Government and a Department caught by surpriae. The renunciation of funding and the Innovation Investment fund, and its replacement with suggested a non-guaranteed matching fund is ludicrous in its structure. The generation of a large pool of commercial - ready ideas have been dissuaded by length of time to market and the hefty corporate tax.
Some questions:
What qualifies an idea worth commercialising?
What is the Government's plans for creating a healthcare innovation community?
What were the results of the Innovation Investment fund, that it was pulled (and what will replace it)?
Other countries are solving this problem, quicker, faster and more attractively priced than Australia. This is critical for the next twenty years of business that can we learn from them and learn to compete against them.
