The Australian health sector is entering a transformative phase with the official launch of Genomics Australia on 1 July 2025 and a new Australian Health Genomics Commissioner.
The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence and the expansion of the use of software in the delivery of healthcare is transforming the medtech landscape, offering unprecedented opportunities for innovation in patient care.
In a long, but intricately reasoned first instance judgment, Australia’s Federal Court has ruled on the validity and infringement of patents relating to wireless detonators.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) recently decided that Moderna’s mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine, SPIKEVAX®, did not infringe Alnylam’s patents because the cationic lipid used in the vaccine, SM-102, was not a cationic lipid with a ‘branched alkyl’ group.[1] The case turned on the proper construction of ‘branched alkyl’.
Health Minister Mark Butler has requested that the Therapeutic Goods Administration consider ‘options to improve standards of telehealth’ in online prescribing.
Imagine an organisation obtaining patent protection over a formulation derived from Kakadu plum, while the First Nations community whose Knowledge guided the discovery receives neither recognition nor benefit.
The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) is currently undertaking a comprehensive review of the second edition of the Prescribing Competencies Framework — Embedding quality use of medicines into practice (the Framework) that outlines the competencies and expectations for safe and effective prescribing.