With a mission to provide expertise and knowledge in the tropical diseases and life science, a 19-member Australian lifescience delegation visited India recently to showcase their capabilities and enhance the relations between the two countries.  A workshop was organised in Mumbai in this regard which was part of Australian Business Week, (ABWI) in Mumbai.

Led by  Andrew Robb AO, MP, Australia's Minister for Trade and Investment, ABWI is the largest commonwealth-sponsored trade, investment, education and tourism mission ever undertaken in India, comprising around 450 delegates from across the sector.

“I think that there is terrific potential for Australia and India to increase significantly the trade and investment links in both directions, today we have been focussing particularly on tropical medicines and lifesciences and this is the area I feel that India and Australia have complementary skills, knowledge expertise will grow stronger if we are together. We have been talking about the shared trade and investments on clinical trials. Medical research with a mission to begin new initiatives and new business to be done,” Jane Madden, Head of Investment, Australian Trade Commission (Austrade) informs Pharmabiz.

According to Austrade, it is one of the few developed economies with domestic experience delivering healthcare in tropical climate This has led to extensive research expertise in medicines to tackle diseases like dengue fever, malaria, and tuberculosis. Therefore the country, sees a huge investment opportunities in tropical medicines in order to partner with leading institutes to develop new therapeutics including malaria vaccines.  

Nicola Watkinson, Australian Trade Commission’s Senior Trade & Investment Commissioner for South Asia, said that this mission would reinforce the message that Australia is keen to identify, strengthen and deepen relationships with India.

There were five panelists who shared and discussed on how and what the two countries could offer each other. Dr Rajiv Khanna, Senior Principal Research Fellow, QIMR & Felicity Topp, COO, Peter, MacCallum Cancer, Institute pointed that there Translating Australian Research from the laboratories into the therapeutics will be an emerging focus in the research aspect.

Various topics such as Australian innovations in vaccines and development towards commercialising novel vaccine candidates, India's tropical diseases burden and the government's approach towards tropical health research, A collaborative approach towards developing sustainable solutions were discussed at par

Dr R Badwe, director, Tata Memorial Research Centre highlighted the various opportunities in the field of oncology and discussed the innovation  and intervention in the oncology

Prof. Abhay Chowdhury, director, Haffkine Institute For Training, Research and Testing , Dr Panduranga Rao, Ella Foundation-Bharat Biotech and Prof. Louis Schofield, director Australian Institute of Tropical Health were also present at the discussion.

The panelists identified significant opportunities to strengthen Australia-India lifesciences research partnerships through Australia’s Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) programme, joint R&D programmes with Australian research institutions; Australian clinical trial and development and contract research services.