AUSTRALIA is lagging behind on public funding for medical research and must back the federal government’s plan for a $20 billion endowment fund, the scientific community says.
COMMONWEALTH investment in health and medical research is currently 64 per cent of the OECD average, and well behind comparable countries such as the UK, Canada and Korea.
The coalition government wants to set up a Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF), backed by money collected from a new $7 GP visit co-payment. Now leading figures have formed a MRFF Action Group to back the initiative, which is facing opposition in the Senate where key crossbenchers are opposed to the co-payment requirement. The government argues the fund would raise $20 billion over the next decade and provide an additional $1 billion of annual disbursements for Australian research into next-generation treatments for pervasive diseases, like cancer. “It is vital that we bring Australia back to an internationally comparable level of government support,” Professor Bruce Robinson, chair of the Group of Eight Universities Deans of Medicine Committee, said in a statement on Tuesday. “If we want more major medical advances to be made in this country, we need this big, bold step in research funding.” Similar funds exist in the UK (Wellcome Trust) and US (Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation). An Australian fund would also encourage students to consider a career in the field. “It says to kids who are going through primary school that if they’re good at science, there will be an opportunity to have a career in medical research here in Australia,” Professor Doug Hilton, director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, said. The MRFF Action Group includes internationally renowned Australian research biologist Gustav Nossal.