Bring back manufacturing
AS we emerge from the coronavirus lockdown, we all understand how vulnerable Australia is to any breakdown in the global supply chains.
How critical this is can be seen in a report, “Does Australia have a medicine supply problem” tabled in the Australian Defence Magazine, dated February 21, 2020.
The report said, “Australia has almost no capacity to manufacture any active pharmaceutical product for most of the products listed on World Health Organisations list of essential medicines”.
A further report from the Institute for Integrated Economic Research highlighted the strategic vulnerability of Australia’s supply of medicines with around 90 per cent currently being imported.
Oh, what a far cry this is from 1944, when our Commonwealth Serum Laboratories established a world precedent in that Australia was the first country to manufacture penicillin for the domestic market.
With around one out of three Australians today estimated to take prescription drugs, the situation is downright terrifying. What would happen if our supply chains were broken through a catastrophic weather event, war, or political upheaval in the offshore countries? The answer is of course that for many Australians, their medical condition would worsen or they would die.
Restarting pharmaceutical manufacturing must be an imperative.
Alison Alloway, Cairns 1835: Formation of Australia’s first political party, the Australian Patriotic Party.
1908: Australia’s federal parliament passes the Invalid and Old-Age Pensions Act, offering means-tested financial support to the elderly and infirm.
1933: Australian Women’s Weekly is first
published.
1996: Australian swimmer Susie Maroney claims record by swimming from Cuba to the US in 37 hours, despite falling short of land.
2016: Mourners line the streets of Muhammad Ali’s (above) hometown of Louisville to farewell the boxing great who died aged 74.
2018: Perth’s “grand old lady” Princess Margaret Hospital closes after 109 years as sick children are moved without a hitch to the newly opened Perth’s Children’s Hospital.