Australian Health Care Industry

I have been back in Australia for about 10 months now. Worked and networked with a lot of people from academic, government and private sector. It really isn't an industry rather a collection of companies and attempts at companies. There is a constant remark that tries to compare to the Israeli biotech/medtech community. No comparison. It really is a cultural thing!

Their is a lot of nice technologies here but there is a sense of trying to model on the US system. There is a genuine recognition that the Australian population is on a whole too small to make a financial success so the successful companies generally revolve around considerable accrual of frequent flyer miles!

It is unfortunate that this is the situation. It tends to inhibit the ability of obtaining an Australian "brand" in this space. The big three, CSL, Cochlear and ResMed are always referred to but this does not make an industry. There is no continuity and it consequently makes a hard sell of Australian biotech/medtech. Difficult situation.

Australia needs to develop its personality as a player in the global health care world.

More to follow on this in future blogs.