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Australasian Biotechnology, Vol. 10 No. 6, 2000, pp. 18-19 AGAL REVIEW MINI-REPORT: THE AGAL SUBMISSIONLynne Reeder Code Number: au00064 The operation and structure of the Australian Government Analytical Laboratories (AGAL) is currently the subject of a major review by the Federal Government. Two departments are conducting the review, the Department of Industry, Science and Resources (DISR) and the Department of Finance and Administration (DoFA). Don Mercer is the Independent Expert Chair. One of the main questions raised by the Strategic Review is: should the Government be in the business of running analytical laboratories? In its submission to the review, the ABA concluded that the answer to this question was “yes”. The growth and development of biotechnology industries is dependent upon the credibility and rigour with which analysis of emerging products and technologies is undertaken. In many emerging technologies the Government adds an independent credibility that commercial laboratories, by their nature, cannot. The ABA submission outlined the public interest roles that AGAL plays including: responding to threats to public health and safety, participation in the development of international standards, trade facilitation, industry development and as the IDA for the Budapest Treaty AGAL has been through many changes in its long history - from its early days last century as part of the Customs Department, where it was responsible for testing imported products into the country as a fully government-owned entity, until to-day, where it resides as a business unit within the DISR. Currently the Government provides up to 35% of its funding, with the rest being generated from its commercial activities. AGAL as the Australian Government’s principal agency for the provision of analytical services in chemistry, microbiology and materials and building science, services both the public and private sectors in the food, agriculture, drugs, environment, material and building science sectors. Leading-edge developments in these sectors will play an increasingly important role as Australia moves to a more knowledge-based economy. AGAL provides credible and independent testing and examination methods, which are fundamental to the public acceptance of many emerging products. Consequently Government analytical laboratories play an important role in facilitating innovative product development. Ninety-seven per cent of Australia’s product and systems innovation is imported from overseas. Early knowledge of international innovation trends is essential for Australian industry. Technological innovation is all about commercialisation and standards play an important role in facilitating industry adoption of technological innovations. Standards technical committees are an enormous source of information on emerging and/or competing technologies and AGAL represents Australian interests on relevant international standards committees. The increase in international mutual recognition agreements should bring many benefits to industry, particularly in reducing duplication for testing, and saving ‘time to market’. Importantly, however, these agreements make it all the more vital that Australia remains a major player in the development of international standards. Standards do have an impact on technology choices, and Australia needs to retain its testing and conformance infrastructure in order to have a high level of influence. No products in the market place are more dependent on developing high levels of public trust, than those that have the potential to impact on public health and safety. When exporting those products, assuring their safety becomes all the more important. Foreign governments pay particular regard to testing done by Government Laboratories in determining whether to accept products coming into their countries. Exported products in leading-edge industries such as biotechnology are usually high value, providing large monetary gains both to the companies involved and to Australia as a whole. They also have the potential to boost Australia’s global standing in those industries more generally. In addition to food, wine, biotechnological and medical products which are exported, there is also great potential for international joint ventures. For example, Australian Vaccine Technologies has just secured a contract to build and operate an export-based blood fractionation plant in China. The project is estimated to be worth $2 billion annually. The Australian company Virax and its academic partners have received a $27 million contract from the US National Institutes of Health to perform research and development work on a vaccine for HIV, based on an Australian invention. Following Australia’s signing of the Budapest treaty, AGAL was appointed to be the International Depository Authority in Australia for deposits of micro-organisms for patent purposes. AGAL also serves the South Asian and Pacific region, including New Zealand. AGAL has performed this role efficiently for bacterial, yeast and fungal samples, which are able to be lyophilised for long-term storage. However, AGAL does not currently have a liquid nitrogen storage facility, and consequently cannot accept deposits of plant or animal cell lines, which are increasingly important for the biotechnology industry. This means that applicants who wish to deposit plant or animal cell lines must use overseas IDAs, usually in the USA or Europe, thus greatly adding to their costs, and causing significant delays. If AGAL had such a facility, not only would it be able to replace an effective import of services, but it would also be able to offer these services to users in other countries. Thus if the IDA were able to accept deposits of a much wider range of organisms for the purposes of patent procedure, effectively the Government would be facilitating an import replacement, and potentially a new source of income from export of services, at least to the South Asia-Pacific region. Most overseas IDAs operate in close collaboration with each country’s national collection of micro-organisms. This considerably strengthens quality control for the IDA. This is not the case in Australia, as there is no effective national collection due to poor funding. It is essential that Australia develops a fully-funded national collection or collections to fulfil the current and future needs of the Australian biotechnology industry. At present, the Australian national collection is housed at the University of Queensland - a situation, which has arisen for historical reasons - but it is seriously jeopardised due to continued under-funding from government. There is a strong case for the Government to substantially increase funding of a national collection. (the Belgium Collection of Micro-organisms, is a good example of an adequately funded collection). Restructuring of AGAL would allow a reappraisal of the status of a national collection. Increasingly there will be many biotechnology issues that will need to be addressed in terms of quality control (eg - DNA fingerprinting authentication). Culture collections play an important role in providing a basis for better research into quality control. Currently Australia has very poorly-resourced culture collections, and research and testing procedures would benefit from the formation of an enhanced national collection. The ABA recommended that because of the important role AGAL plays in industry development and for the public good roles it fulfils that:
There are many rumours currently going around as to the fate of AGAL, everything from its full privatisation, to its absorption into another government agency, such as CSIRO. The report timetable was always going to be tight, with the draft report originally due by 31 October and the final report due prior to November 30. This was then altered so that the draft report, containing recommendations was pushed forward to November 15. However, the ABA has now been informed that the release date has been delayed again, with no indication when it will made available to the public. One of the speculations for the delay is that the Minister for Industry, Senator Nick Minchin, will move portfolios in the Federal Government’s Cabinet reshuffle due in December. If the report is not signed off by the relevant Ministers prior to December, there could be budgetary implications, as the recommendations would not make the budget bids for the 2001 Federal Budget. The ABA will be keeping an eye on developments and will continue to lobby for AGAL to retain its government imprimatur and be properly resourced to operate effectively.
Copyright 2000 - Australasian Biotechnology
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