As part of the MOU, the two organisations will commit a total of AUD$3.5 million to a grant which will fund collaborative research projects between Singaporean and Australian groups in areas such as emerging infectious diseases, regenerative medicine, non-communicable diseases, infomatics and nanotechnology.

Scientific symposia will be run to establish research collaborations across Singapore and Australia. This will provide a platform for researchers from both countries to share their latest research and network. The first scheduled symposium will be in Australia in 2012.

A*STAR Chairman, Mr Lim Chuan Poh said the agreement with NHMRC is a reflection of the growing scientific relations between the countries’ institutions.

“A*STAR and NHMRC share a common vision to drive cutting-edge scientific research, geared for producing discoveries and innovations that will benefit our citizens and society at large,” he added. “I am confident that we will build on this to forge even more meaningful and impactful collaborations.”

The two institutions will facilitate research exchanges for postdoctoral fellows between Singapore and Australia, enabling the exchange of scientific data and providing scientists with exposure and training in new research techniques.

Singapore has had an MOU in the past with the Australian Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research in 2009 and two symposia co-organised with the Australian Academy of Sciences in Energy and Stem Cells which produced collaborations involving researchers from multiple Singaporean institutes.

NHMRC CEO, Professor Warwick Anderson, said: “Through these international collaborations we will be better placed to bring together the best international research to fight health challenges today and into the future.”

In 1974, a commercial television station in Australia held a telethon to raise funds to take an obscure Australian biotech project to prototype. Four years later, the medical device was implanted in the first human patient and 71-year-old Rod Saunders heard sound for the first time in 25 years. Now Australia’s most famous medical invention, the Cochlear story aptly demonstrates the barriers faced by Australian innovators in the medical industry.

According to Janelle Casey, Austrade’s global leader for Biotechnology, Health and ICT, “we face difficulty in commercialising innovation because we need capital injection, and that’s traditionally really hard for Australian innovation and technology in this country”.

Despite this handicap, Australian bioengineers, scientists and doctors are punching well above their weight in the global healthcare industry. Children with minor infections have benefited from Howard Florey’s discovery of the curative effects of penicillin. Many Australians with a snoring bedfellow have peaceful nights using Resmed’s treatment devices for sleep apnoea.

Victims of the Bali bombings healed quickly with the application of spray-on skin for horrific burns, developed in Western Australia, and women all over the world face less risk of developing cervical cancer following the Australian development of Gardasil, the first vaccine against human papillomavirus.

Even with these achievements, Australian exporters hold only a tiny share of a world medical market worth US$174 billion. The global medical technology industry is growing at a rate of 10 percent per annum, and with population on the rise, it is an industry set to take off. The Australian medical technology industry is worth $6.7 billion, and is expanding slightly faster than the world market at 12 percent each year. Casey believes that with less than one percent of the world market, the opportunities for Australian companies are endless.

New exporters

Australians can be ruthlessly competitive in a world market, provided they believe in their product and are prepared to put time and energy into penetrating international markets, says Alan Oppenheim, CEO of Ego Pharmaceuticals. Oppenheim sits at the helm of an Australian household name that has been exporting for 50 years.

“You can’t do too much research. Get to know your new market and how your channel will run in the new market,” he advises. Ego Pharmaceuticals provides a good example for new exporters looking to emulate Australian success. An Australian-owned small business, Ego has been competing with multinationals in the world market for decades. They have 40 staff in eight countries, but spend little on marketing. Profits are channelled back into research and development because, as Oppenheim warns, “all the marketing in the world is only going to sell the first bottle”.

New exporters should take advantage of Austrade’s export assistance programs, including Commercialisation Australia and even the recently slashed export market development grant (EMDG). Austrade organises Australian pavilions at major international trade fairs, including Medica in Germany, the Asia Medical Fair in Singapore and Arab Health in the Middle East, allowing Australian businesses to exhibit at a fraction of the usual cost.

Small Australian companies can leverage the total dollar spend of the Australian trade mission to see what opportunities are available. “You have to go overseas,” Casey says. “You have to see who you’re competing with and where you fit to help you work out your positioning, pricing, market entry models and distribution channels.”

Existing exporters

An understanding of where Australia fits in the market is essential for existing exporters looking to expand. Casey advises against businesses competing on consumables, as manufacturing in Australia is too expensive to be competitive in the export of low value medical products.

Where Australia can exploit its advantages is in high value, niche industry products. Australian companies can trade off competitive innovation, quality research and development and a powerful precision engineering sector with a long-term record in the automotive industry. “We really have quality expertise to help prototype our medical devices here in Australia,” Casey says. “Contract manufacturers can do short runs of prototypes easily.”

While traditionally Australia’s biggest export markets in the healthcare sector have been in the Asia-Pacific, the Middle East is an important emerging market for exports. “The Middle East has a big shortage of hospitals,” Casey says. “Saudi Arabia alone is building 200 new hospitals and they’re looking to fit out with a whole range of medical equipment and devices.”

Australia has a good reputation in the Middle East and, according to Casey, because Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates have adopted Australian medical standards, making it simple for Australian companies to enter the market there, we have a particular competitive advantage.

The Americas recorded a death toll rise of 554 cases in one week, while Europe saw an 85 percent jump in cases, where deaths increased from 350 to more than 650 in the week. The jump in northern hemisphere cases corresponds with the onset of winter and the flu season there.

Mutated strains of the virus have also been discovered, with health authorities in Norway and France each recording two fatalities from a mutated strain of H1N1. China, Japan, Norway, Ukraine and the USA have also recorded cases of people being infected with a mutated strain.

“What we’re trying to do when we see reports of mutations is to identify if these mutations are leading to any kinds of changes in the clinical picture – do they cause more severe or less severe disease?” said Keiji Fukuda, WHO special adviser on pandemic influenza. “Also we’re trying to see if these viruses are increasing out there as that would suggest a change in epidemiology.”

WHO director-general Dr Margaret Chan has called for international solidarity to provide equitable access to pandemic influenza vaccine for all countries. Final preparations are underway to distribute donated pandemic influenza vaccines to 95 low- and middle-income countries to help prevent severe disease.

In September, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Health Minister Nicole Roxon pledged to donate up to 10 percent of our pandemic (H1N1) vaccine to the WHO for use in Pacific Island countries, including Papua New Guinea and East Timor.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Stephen Smith welcomes New Zealand’s support, which will enable the purchase of syringes and sharps bins.

“Trans-Tasman collaboration on this issue reflects a shared recognition of the challenges faced by developing countries in responding to pandemics,” he said in a statement. “Australia and New Zealand will continue to coordinate closely with the WHO to ensure vaccines reach the people who need them the most.”

“We pledge, by supporting this initiative, to encourage our industry to help raise funds to treat the sick in the poorest of our world’s countries,” announced the coalition to the UN General Assembly last week.

The project will give travellers the option to donate a micro-contribution to the initiative when they purchase travel services. The money will be used for causes such as fighting HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in developing countries. Early modelling suggests this could boost funding for these health initiatives by $1 billion in the first four years.

President and CEO of the World Travel & Tourism Council Jean-Claude Baumgarten stated: “As the leaders of an industry that is central to the global economy, generating almost one out of every ten dollars spent in the world and employing 220 million workers, we recognise this responsibility.”

MassiveGood will be launched early 2010.

The United Nations Millennium Development Goals Report 2009 shows that while we’ve done a lot to reduce the number of people in extreme poverty, the global economic downturn may stifle further progress if developed countries don’t sustain their commitments.

“To this end, Australia has restated its commitment to increase its development assistance to 0.5 percent of gross national income by 2015/16,” said Minister for Foreign Affairs Stephen Smith in a statement.

Children’s health and education has also been a key factor in progress with a reduction in infant mortality and a rise in primary school enrolments.

Australian cases passed 9,000 at the weekend, with 19 deaths.

Health authorities have ordered 21 million doses of a swine flu vaccine, which WHO says will be released in September.

“We need to do some trials to make sure it’s safe, so we’re saying by October we should be able to start a program, but that depends really on manufacture being successful,” said chief medical officer Jim Bishop.

According to WHO, the virus has shown some resistance to the antiviral drug oseltamivir (Tamiflu) based on laboratory testing but remains sensitive zanamivir.

Bishop says the virus could have a run on effect as the northern hemisphere enters flu season before a vaccine can be rolled out: “We’re more concerned about the second wave of this thing, which might be more severe than the first.”

Australia leads the Asia-Pacific region with 5,298 cases, while Britain has recorded the most cases in Europe, 7,447.

The flu, which originated in North America, has now spread to 136 countries.

Argentina recorded the highest death rate over the weekend, with 34 fatalities since WHO’s last report on Friday and a total death toll of 60. Its death toll is now the world’s third highest behind the USA (170) and Mexico (119).

Some countries do not track all cases, which means the number of people with the virus may have already passed 100,000.

The number of confirmed cases surged by more than 11,000 since WHO’s last bulletin on Friday, and deaths rose by 48 over the same period. The USA accounted for more than half of the new cases, and 21 deaths.

The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention used computer modelling and community surveys to estimate that about 1 million people in the country had swine flu, about 50 times more than official figures due to cases not being reported.

Swine flu cases in Australia also jumped significantly, with 758 new cases and four deaths recorded. The total infection rate is now 4,038 confirmed cases and seven deaths.

Swine flu is the first global influenza pandemic since the Hong Kong influenza, more than 40 years ago.

However, the escalation merely reflects the spread of the virus, now in more than 70 countries, rather than its severity.

“In the past, other pandemic flu viruses have been more serious than the seasonal variants they replaced… so far this pandemic strain has been mild in its effects,” said Professor Adrian Sleigh, spokesperson for the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at the Australian National University.

Confirmed cases of the flu in Australia has reached more than 1,300, with the majority concentrated in Victoria. Concern centres on the spread of the virus as Australia enters the winter months where infection rates are higher.