Maturing Australia’s medical product development capabilities
All medical products are required to undergo research and testing to ensure they are safe and effective for human use and commercialisation. This evaluation is typically conducted using animals.
CSIRO has led a project investing Australia's non-animal model capabilities for medical product development. The resulting report assesses the potential of emerging non-animal models to complement or replace traditional approaches over the next 15 years.
The report identifies four opportunities for applying non-animal models to medical product development that align Australia's strengths with global need.
These opportunities are:
- Complex in vitro models for drug discovery
- Organ-specific models for pre-clinical development
- Personalised models for trial participant and clinical treatment selection
- On-shore production of model components
Ten recommendations have been designed to enable the opportunities and strategically advance Australia's national non-animal model ecosystem.
Download the report
- Non-animal models - executive summary PDF (1 MB)
- Non-animal models - executive summary, accessible text only TXT (8 KB)
- Non-animal models - full report PDF (2 MB)
- Non-animal models - full report, accessible text only TXT (183 KB)
Why non-animal models?
Non-animal models use human-derived or humanised cells, tissues, or data. These models are becoming increasingly sophisticated and are surpassing the performance of traditional animal models at anticipating the safety and efficacy of novel medical products.
Why now?
There is a global shift to reduce the reliance on animal models in medical product development. Over the next 15 years, there will be a significant rise in the global use of non-animal models across all stages of the medical product development pipeline.
Why Australia?
Australia has the opportunity to play a key role in this emerging global capability by leveraging its research expertise and infrastructure.
Australia is still in the process of maturing and coordinating these national capabilities. This report seeks to support these coordination efforts and suggests that a nationally coordinated approach can accelerate the demonstration, scaling, and commercial success of non-animal model applications in Australia.