AusBiotech joins forces with Cook Medical and Deloitte on tax

Australian biotechnology industry experts are joining forces to support a “patent box” tax incentive, like that recently introduced in the UK, to keep home-grown intellectual property (IP) in Australia and keep the local medical manufacturing industry globally competitive.

The R&D Tax Incentive remains a top priority for the life sciences industry, however, the incentive to keep locally-developed IP in Australia for manufacture phases out as the IP reaches commercialization and becomes a manufactured product. This is the point that Australian IP is most vulnerable to being sold overseas and the resulting community benefits – jobs and export dollars – going with it. IP is highly-mobile and can be easily separated from the jurisdiction where it was developed and migrated to low-tax jurisdictions.

The industry is urging further tax reform to provide incentives for manufacturing innovative products to encourage long-term investment in home-grown technologies and support for export-oriented local production.