Tasmania’s poppy fields should be better leveraged to create an Australian-based pain medication manufacturing industry.
While welcoming a Federal Government investment to support local manufacturing of IV (intravenous) fluids through a $20 million grant to grow an existing facility in Western Sydney, Palliative Care Australia (PCA) said more should be done in establishing an Australian-made supply of other critical health products.
PCA CEO Camilla Rowland said the same support was needed for pain relief medications so “people can die with peace and dignity, and families weren’t left with the trauma of seeing loved ones in pain and distress”, during medicine shortages.
Ms Rowland said Australia already had a role in global production, with Tasmania the world’s largest producer of poppies, the raw ingredient needed for many pain medicines.
She said poppies were grown to extract a material known as “alkaloid”, which was a core ingredient in a range of pain relief pharmaceuticals, including morphine, thebaine and codeine.
“According to the Tasmanian Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Tasmania’s 450 poppy growers supply almost half of the world’s demand of the alkaloid material.
“This is a significant competitive advantage for Australia as global supply chains falter and business models are challenged.”
Ms Rowland said the country’s experience during Covid demonstrated Australia had the skills and capacity for home-based medicinal manufacturing, by producing vaccines locally.
“At that time we were able to have some independence from supply shortages and global transport challenges and look after our own.
“In the same way that government and industry are now investing in local production to solve the IV fluids shortage, we need to do the same for pain relief medications.”
