The public benefits of health and medical research

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The public benefits of health and medical research
Professor Warwick Anderson Chief Executive Officer
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NHMRC Act amended 2006

• Establishes NHMRC as an independent statutory
  agency within the health portfolio

• To raise the standard of individual and public
  health throughout Australia
• To foster the development of consistent health
  standards between the various States and
  Territories
• To foster medical research and training and
  public health research and training throughout
  Australia and
• To foster consideration of ethical issues
  relating to health
• NHMRCs Strategic Plan - Parliament
• Must contain the CEOs assessment of the major
  national health issues that are likely to arise
  during the period (of the Strategic Plan).

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Highways to Health
PROSPERITY
IMPROVED INDIVDUAL AND COMMUNITY HEALTH
Improving health globally and regionally
Prevention
Improved delivery of primary, hospital health care
New treatments, therapies
Innovative industry development
KNOWLEDGE
RESEARCH
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NHMRC Funding Schemes - Summary

• Support for health and medical Research
• Program Grants
• Project Grants
• Development awards
• Building Australia's Research capacity
• People
• Fellowships
• Career Development Awards
• Training Fellowships
• Scholarships
• Fields
• Capacity Building Grants in Population health
  Research
• Capacity Building Grants in Health services
  Research
• Centres of Clinical Research Excellence
• Research Infrastructure
• Infrastructure Grants for Independent Medical
  Research Institutes
• Enabling Grants
• Equipment Grants

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Grants for support of research
Grant Number Program
Grants 103,319,442 65 Project Grants 281,747,558
1719 Development Grants 3,084,852 36 Priority
Strategic Grants 7,471,287 25
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NHMRC Project GrantsMore could be funded
Not recommended for funding (score lt4)
Fundable, but not funded (score 4)
Funded
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NHMRC research expenditure in 2007
Where the Funding GoesAdministering Institution
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NHMRC Funding to all Universities (2000 and 2007)
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NHMRC Funding of top 10 Institutions - 2008
Top 10 66.9 of total funds
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Percentage of NHMRC research expenditure to each
state and territory 2000 2007
Where the Funding Goes
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Highways to Health
PROSPERITY
IMPROVED INDIVDUAL AND COMMUNITY HEALTH
Improving health globally and regionally
Prevention
Improved delivery of primary, hospital health care
New treatments, therapies
Innovative industry development
KNOWLEDGE
RESEARCH
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National Health Priority Areas (NHPA)
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Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Research

• NHMRC has a target of allocating 5 of the
  Medical Research Endowment Account (MREA) to
  Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander related
  research

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NHMRC Funding for Indigenous Health Funding
(2000-2007)

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Patents in NHMRC project grant applications (2000
2006)
Intellectual Property
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A Study of NHMRC final reports
The following slides are an analysis of data
received on final reports from NHMRC funded
grants. This includes

• 1208 final reports from grants that ended in
  2003, 2004 and 2005
• With a total value of 460.1 million of NHMRC
  funding between 1998 and 2005.
• Scholarships, equipment grants and block funding
  are excluded.

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Intellectual Property

• Has this research award resulted in the
  development of Intellectual Property?
• Yes 227 19
• No 953 79
• Not Answered 28 2
• Total 1208 100

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Commercialisation
Reported commercial actions arising out of the
research includes 29 start up companies, 11
reports of sales of products, and 3 IPO listings.
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Leverage of National and International funds

• Total investment of 460.1 million for 1208 NHMRC
  grants resulted in leveraged funds of 254.4
  million from
• National sources 124.1 million
• International sources 130.3 million

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Leverage of National and International funds
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New policy and practice focusedresearch NHMRC
Partnerships

• NHMRC Partnerships will focus on informing both
  policy and practice in
• health. This represents a new focus for the NHMRC
  in 2008.
• The initiative will
• help create partnerships between policy makers,
  managers, clinicians and researchers
• provide funding and support to create new
  opportunities for researchers and
• policy makers to work together
• The aims are to
• Lead to more effective connections between policy
  makers and researchers
• Improve the availability and quality of research
  evidence to inform policy
• Process
• NHMRC Partnerships will initially fund two types
  of awards
• NHMRC Partnership Projects (ARC Linkage -like)
• NHMRC Partnerships Centres for Research
  excellence

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2005 Nobel Prize WinnersProfessor Barry
MarshallProfessor Robin Warren

• University of Western Australia
• Marshall and Warren shared the Nobel Prize in
  Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of the
  Helicobacter pylori and its role in gastritis and
  peptic ulcer disease.

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1996 Nobel Prize WinnerProfessor Peter Doherty

• John Curtin School of Medical Research
• Professor Doherty received the Nobel Prize for
  his milestone research into cellular immunology
  and discovery of how the body's immune system
  recognises virus-infected cells.

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2006 Australian of the YearProfessor Ian Frazer

• University of Queensland
• Honoured as Australian of the Year for his
  groundbreaking work on the development of a
  vaccine for cervical cancer.His work will
  prevent a virus that leads to half a million
  cases of cancer in women around the world each
  year, and takes hundreds of thousands of lives.

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Commercial outcomes

• NHMRC support
• Development Grants (under review)
• Support Enhancement Options
• Australian success stories
• Cochlear - Total revenue for the year 2006
  increased 30 to a record 452.3 million
• ResMed - Delivered a record financial performance
  achieving 607 million in revenues, an increase
  of 43 from 2005
• CSL (now with Gardasil!) - Consolidated Group
  profit for 2007 539.3 million

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Water Fluoridation

• Australias main public health strategy in
  reducing the prevalence of dental caries.
• NHMRC has funded evaluative research since the
  1980s (validating the safety, optimal levels and
  cost-effectiveness of water fluoridation)
• For each 1 invested in water fluoridation,
  estimated savings in dental treatment range from
  12.60 to 80.00, with the greatest benefit to
  the most disadvantaged.
• NHMRC supported research has
• informed public debate,
• provided an objective view on costs and benefits,
  and
• provided reports that enable politically
  challenging policy decisions.

Source Access Economics, draft Report Returns
to NHMRC funded RD (2008)
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Venous Thromboembolism

• It is estimated that, in 2008, there will be
• 14,700 hospitalisations
• 5,285 deaths
• VET costs 116,970 per case due to lost
  productivity from premature death.
• Health system expenditure is 10,007 per case.
• NICS developed and implemented the Stop the Clot
  campaign.
• Savings from the NHMRC component alone would be 5
  lives per annum and 1.6 million in savings to
  the health system.

Source Access Economics, draft Report Returns
to NHMRC funded RD (2008)
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NHMRC Working to build a healthy
Australia www.nhmrc.gov.au
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CSL - Gardasil

• A vaccine against certain types of human
  papillomavirus.
• Royalties attribution yields a benefit of 63
  million per annum to Australia.
• Potential benefits include the saving of 225,000
  lives each year worldwide.
• CSL Consolidated Group profit for 2007 539.3
  million

Source Access Economics, draft Report Returns
to NHMRC funded RD (2008)