Govt to measure biotech's economic impact

The federal government is about to embark on a project to quantify the great unknown: measuring the economic impact of biotechnology on the Australian economy overall.

The Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology Branch of the Department of Industry Tourism and Resources today called for tenders for a project which will construct and test-run a method for measure the economic impact of biotechnology on other industries, including agriculture, mining, energy production, manufacturing industries, and of course pharmaceuticals and medical devices.

Craig Pennifold, DITR's general manager of pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, said the project was in reponse to a "real thirst" for better information on the industry and its knock-on effects. He said the information would be used by industries and governments to better tailor their investments in biotechnology.

"The biotech industry represents a set of intermediate applications with wide applications across the whole industry, including pharma devices agriculture and mining," Pennifold said. "It enables other industries to do well.

"There is little information available internationally on the economic impact of biotechnology on economies. Australia doing this would put us at the forefront, internationally."

Pennifold said this initial stage of the project would develop a conceptual and statistical framework for measuring biotechnology's economic contribution -- a methodology which will then be used and refined by running a pilot study on a particular sector. Tenders for the project are due by February 16, and a final report will be published by June 17.