Overview Pharmaceuticals / Drug Delivery
The Australian pharmaceuticals industry comprises biomedical research, biotechnology firms, originator and generic medicines companies and service related segments including wholesaling and distribution. The industry is a major innovative contributor to the economy, and one of the most R&D intensive industries in the country, which employs more than 42,000 people and invests more than AU$1 billion per year in R&D.Queensland makes a significant contribution to the Australian pharmaceuticals industry. The State has outstanding biomedical research, biodiversity and outcomes for translational research. An "Australian-first initiative" based in Brisbane, the Translational Research Institute (TRI) has a unique 'bench to bedside' medical research focus, established for the discovery, production and testing of biopharmaceutics. TRI's founding partners were The University of Queensland (UQ), Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Mater Medical Research Institute and Queensland Health.Having built upon a combination of public sector research and private sector development; including biomedical research, clinical, translational research and biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, Queensland has certainly become a leader in these fields, with a strong vaccine development pipeline established, and a myriad of clinical-stage developers.Just some of the key companies working in this space include Dendright and its vaccine targeting Dendritic cells; PharmaSynth and its therapeutics contract manufacturing capabilities; Invion Limited's focus on developing treatments for inflammatory diseases; or Implicit Bioscience Limited's aim to identify clinical-stage assets and develop them for the benefit of both patients and shareholders.The State is also home to some of the world's leading universities, who are all operating at a high level across a range of research institutes such as Griffith University's Eskitis Institute for Drug Discovery and Menzies Health Institute, QUT's Institute for Health and Biomedical Innovation and James Cook University's (JCU) Centre for Biodiscovery and Molecular Development of Therapeutics (CBMDT). Furthermore, there is QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, as well as the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, the Centre for Advanced Imaging, the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology and the Queensland Brain Institute at UQ.