Recent waves of job losses across the local biopharmaceutical industry probably mask a deeper, systemic decline in Australia’s capacity to participate in the global life‑sciences ecosystem, with worrying implications for national resilience, patient access to innovation, and the country’s attractiveness as an investment destination. Are we at risk of following New Zealand in losing a strategic national capability?
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Latest News
Now you can see the next step in the process most are officially excluded from
BioPharmaDispatch, also BPDInsights.ai, is publishing an edited version of the information provided to the unidentified participants in the second stage of the Delphi study on the definitions of 'high unmet medical need' and 'high added therapeutic value'. At least this way, those excluded can see its direction.
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Latest News Australia risks losing more than jobs in its biopharmaceutical sector — it risks losing strategic capability June 1, 2026
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Latest News Ex-MA executive named the first CEO of Medicinal Cannabis Council Australia June 1, 2026Former Medicines Australia public affairs head, Gail Morgan, has been appointed as the inaugural chief executive officer of the Medicinal Cannabis Council Australia.
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Latest News Omico opens a new chapter in precision oncology research June 1, 2026Omico has launched a national real-world data initiative built on Australia’s largest prospectively consented precision oncology dataset, comprising more than 20,000 records.
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Latest News New PBS listings expand access to blood cancer therapies June 1, 2026Blood cancers remain a major health burden in Australia. It is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death. Around 20,000 people were diagnosed with blood cancer in 2025, and more than 135,000 Australians now live with blood cancer.
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Latest News Oral RAS inhibitor doubles median survival and cuts death risk in metastatic pancreatic cancer June 1, 2026According to the company, in the Phase 3 RASolute 302 trial, daraxonrasib showed a roughly 60 per cent reduction in the risk of death and a doubling of median overall survival compared with standard second-line chemotherapy.
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Latest News Australia's HTA Review closed-loop process continues with 'Delphi' stage two June 1, 2026Links sent to participate in round two of the process are uniquely coded, single-use and ring-fenced. Whose input does it reflect? Surely we have a right to know? The fact that this was entirely predictable is still no excuse for secrecy and non-transparency.
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Latest News Helpful evidence of how the review is landing on outcomes to potentially benefit a few 'Unicorns' June 1, 2026Is this the outcome people expected, not least after almost five years? It makes the sudden urgency that so many now demand very odd. Given that the current trajectory means no change for the vast majority of new therapies, why the urgency?
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Podcast The 'Dispatched' Week in Review Podcast - 29 May May 28, 2026Powerful patient stories stand in contrast to a decision-making framework that explicitly dehumanises their lived experience. The need for 'decency and compassion'. Week one of Senate Estimates, the challenge of saying one thing publicly and something else privately, and a Budget that revealed so much about what is coming.
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Latest News TGA provisional approval brings first targeted treatment for SOD1 linked ALS to Australia June 1, 2026Alice Tien, Managing Director of Biogen Australia and New Zealand, said, “People living with ALS and those who support them have waited a long time to see meaningful progress against this devastating disease."
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Latest News New Zealand's pre-election Budget boosts health spending, but Pharmac misses out May 29, 2026The increase, equivalent to roughly a 1 per cent rise in the agency’s baseline funding, means the backlog of medicines awaiting funding will remain almost entirely intact.
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Australian Biotech AusBiotech unites conferences under the banner of the 'Biggest Week' in biotech May 28, 2026AusBiotech has announced a major change that will bring its three flagship conferences together as a single, connected week on the Gold Coast in October 2026.
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Latest News A fraught process but also an opportunity to reintroduce ideas sidelined by the review May 28, 2026The government’s internal inter-agency machinery does the heavy lifting before industry is invited in. That upstream process shapes, narrows and will almost certainly set the terms under which any negotiation involving the industry can take place. It still creates opportunity.
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Latest News Research highlighting gaps leaving some communities at greater risk as flu May 28, 2026The release of the research coincides with the NSW Government's decision to expand eligibility for the free nasal spray flu vaccine to include all young people aged 2 to 17 in the state, adding to the country's immunisation 'postcode lottery'.
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Latest News Single infusion of Lilly gene editing cuts cholesterol with the company planning long-term study May 27, 2026A single intravenous infusion of Lilly's investigational base editor VERVE‑102 produced dose-dependent reductions in PCSK9 of up to 88 per cent and LDL cholesterol of up to 62 per cent, with effects sustained for up to 18 months.
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Latest News Australia’s access dilemma and how commercial leaders have adapted over time May 27, 2026The commercial leaders discussed the market access and health technology assessment challenge in Australia, focusing on how attitudes of these decision-making executives have evolved in response to changing reimbursement, policy and system pressures
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Latest News TGA approves Sanofi innovation that offers the chance to delay onset of type 1 diabetes May 27, 2026Australians living with an early pre-symptomatic stage of type 1 diabetes can now be treated with the first approved non-insulin medicine that slows the immune attack that leads to symptomatic disease.
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Latest News ARCS launches national partnership to boost public clinical research sites May 27, 2026ARCS has launched a new national model to strengthen the capabilities, visibility, and sector connections of public clinical research sites across the country, with Monash Health joining as a founding partner.
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Latest News This unique historical oddity says all we need to know about the institution May 26, 2026Can anyone think of any government agency or advisory committee that has ever publicly opposed more investment in the programs they oversee, not least when the demand for more is driven by the people they are designed to serve? It is uniquely weird.
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Latest News Mayne Pharma awarded legal costs as business expansion gains momentum May 25, 2026Mayne Pharma has been awarded $13.2 in legal costs plus interest after the Supreme Court of New South Wales upheld the company in proceedings against Cosette Pharmaceuticals over the US company's attempted termination of the Scheme Implementation Deed signed in early 2025.
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Latest News New Zealand's Pharmac consulting on new vaccine brands and wider flu access for young children May 26, 2026Pharmac has proposed switching the brands of meningococcal ACWY, pneumococcal, and influenza vaccines, and widening access to the influenza vaccine so that all children aged 6 months to 5 years could be eligible for funded shots.
Australian Biotech
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AusBiotech unites conferences under the banner of the 'Biggest Week' in biotech
May 28, 2026 -
ARCS launches national partnership to boost public clinical research sites
May 27, 2026 -
AusBiotech launches survey in response to Budget’s 'blind spot' on R&D impact
May 24, 2026 -
AusBiotech and Tenmile partner to accelerate Australian life sciences
May 22, 2026 -
Australia’s life sciences sector emerges as fast growing, globally connected powerhouse
May 21, 2026
Other Health
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NDIS fraud is so extensive that 'prosecuting our way out of it' is now impractical
April 24, 2026 -
A Western Sydney GP experiment is quietly helping to reshape the hospital equation
April 23, 2026 -
Vitura Health names Justin James as CEO to drive next phase of growth
April 6, 2026 -
Medical research powering Australia’s health and economic future
March 31, 2026 -
Implantable sensor approved in Australia could transform how hydrocephalus is monitored
March 17, 2026
Latest Video
New Stories
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Omico opens a new chapter in precision oncology research
June 1, 2026 - - Latest News -
Ex-MA executive named the first CEO of Medicinal Cannabis Council Australia
June 1, 2026 - - Latest News -
Oral RAS inhibitor doubles median survival and cuts death risk in metastatic pancreatic cancer
June 1, 2026 - - Latest News -
Australia risks losing more than jobs in its biopharmaceutical sector — it risks losing strategic capability
June 1, 2026 - - Latest News -
New PBS listings expand access to blood cancer therapies
June 1, 2026 - - Latest News -
Now you can see the next step in the process most are officially excluded from
June 1, 2026 - - Latest News -
Australia's HTA Review closed-loop process continues with 'Delphi' stage two
June 1, 2026 - - Latest News

