The value of clinical research with modern medicines in New Zealand : Economic contribution and wide-ranging benefits

A report for Medicines New Zealand.

NZIER's report shows that clinical trials have contributed $146 million per year on average to New Zealand’s GDP and created over 700 jobs per year since 2013.

The report also highlights the role clinical trials play in supporting activity in other parts of the New Zealand economy. In 2018, it purchased $44.0 million of inputs and supported 222 jobs in supplying sectors.

Clinical trials can offer benefits to the health system such as promoting a research culture in the health system, supporting recruitment and retaining high quality health professionals, and providing learning opportunities for students in the health profession and more.

We were also asked to provide a qualitative assessment of the benefits to New Zealand's health sector from conducting clinical trials in New Zealand.

To ensure reliability of our analysis, we have narrowed our scope to pharmaceutical-type clinical trials recommended for approval by the Health Resource Council's (HRC) Standing Committee on Therapeutic Trials (SCOTT) (henceforth, 'SCOTT trials'). These trials are exclusively of interventions that meet the definition of "new medicines" under New Zealand legislation. This means our estimates are conservative as they do not capture the entire clinical trials sector in New Zealand.