The National Medical Countermeasures Initiative has invited the life sciences industry to help shape the future of Australian health security policy. The Initiative is developing a comprehensive national picture of Australia’s capability and capacity to conduct research, development, manufacturing and distribution of products and services that are essential to the nation’s health security.
The National Health Security Resilience Assessment (Assessment) will build on and extend beyond previous audits of Australia’s medical countermeasures capability to include end-to-end research, development, manufacturing and distribution in six critical sectors including medical countermeasures, medical devices, personal protective equipment (PPE), modelling and simulation, hazard management and sensing systems.
The current COVID-19 environment highlights the need for Australia’s health security to be underpinned by a nationally coordinated approach to sovereign preparedness, prevention, response, and recovery (PPRR). With a strong focus on supply chain resilience and in-country manufacturing capacity, the Assessment will assess the strengths and vulnerabilities of Australia’s PPRR ecosystem.
The Assessment is led by DMTC (Defence Materials Technology Centre). Multiple government agency stakeholders were consulted in the development of the assessment and will gain strategic insight and direction from the results including: Department of Industry, Science, Energy, and Resources; Department of Health; Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade; Department of Defence; and Department of Home Affairs.
The Assessment is open until 31 May 2021. It is expected to take 15 – 60 minutes, depending on the sectors your organisation is involved in.
To participate in the Assessment, register as a user here, then complete the surveys of relevance to your company.
Further information on the Assessment and its stakeholders can be found on DMTC’s website.