IV fluids like saline and sodium lactate solution are essential medicines used across the healthcare sector (ABC Central West: Emily Middleton)
In short:
The federal government will spend $20 million to expand the only local manufacturing facility of IV fluids.
Production of the medicine is expected to jump from 60 million units a year to 80 million units from 2027.
What's next?
Health Minister Mark Butler said it will mean Australia's supply chain is less vulnerable to global shocks.
Australian production of IV fluids will ramp-up dramatically under a multimillion-dollar federal government move following months of criticism over its handling of severe shortages of the essential medicine.
In a plan designed to end Australia's reliance on offshore IV fluids, the federal government will spend $20 million expanding Baxter Healthcare's production facility in Western Sydney — the only local manufacturer of the essential medicine.
The American multinational will match the investment, with the scaled-up facility expected to increase IV fluid production from 60 million units a year to 80 million units from 2027.
Health Minister Mark Butler said the move would shore up Australia's supply of the critical medicine while creating more jobs.
"This is an extraordinary investment in IV fluid production," he said.
Health Minister Mark Butler said the increased local production capacity means Australia's supply chain is less vulnerable to global shocks. (ABC News: Kate Nickels)
"The Albanese Labor government is building Australia's future by ensuring that critical medicines and medical supplies are manufactured here in Australia, by Australians."
The ongoing shortage has frustrated doctors, who have complained of being instructed to "gatekeep" IV fluids by having to decide which patients to give them to.
The ABC also revealed that at the height of the shortage, patients were having to stay in hospital care units after surgery for longer because doctors were rationing the fluids.
IV fluids like saline and sodium lactate solution are essential medicines used across the sector for everything from treating dehydration to helping patients in intensive and post-operative care.
Doctors still being forced to conserve IV fluids
Photo shows Saline 1
Higher-than-expected demand and manufacturing constraints have fuelled the global supply shortages, which began in 2023 and are expected to continue through 2025, according to the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
The federal government last year convened an urgent response group to look at the shortage, comprised of the states and territories and various health stakeholders. It also moved to secure 22 million bags of IV fluid on the back of mounting pressure to do more to guarantee supply.
The Australian Medical Association said the shortage had been a "wake up call", exposing gaps in Australia's manufacturing chains, while former deputy chief medical officer and Australian Patients Association (APA) ambassador Nick Coatsworth questioned why "it's so hard to make salt water".
Baxter already produces about 75 per cent of the IV fluids Australia uses and Mr Butler said the expansion of its Western Sydney facility would mean the nation was less vulnerable to overseas supply chain issues.
"It will ensure we have a future made in Australia with onshore production to shield the country from global supply shocks that we have seen recently and through COVID," he said.
"It means more jobs, more bags of IV fluid, and less dependence on overseas production."