Sample profile

There were a total of 2,797 responses to the survey. Participants were asked a range of questions about their organisation, role and industry background. Table 1 shows the roles of respondents. Participation in the survey included representation from across the range of industry and professional roles. As highlighted in Table 2, around one in five respondents to this question highlighted more than one category (average selections 1.2).

Table 1: Respondent roles

Table 2: Respondent roles - number of selections

Figure 2: Industry

The most commonly identified category was medical products industry (69% of respondents to the question), with health professionals (19%), retailers (7%) and academics (6%) also making up substantial numbers within the sample.

Amongst the more than two thirds (69%) of responses highlighting a role in the medical products industry, the most commonly identified role was that of product sponsor. This group made up the vast majority of respondents in this group, accounting for 73% of those who identified themselves in the medical products industry. Product manufacturers were also commonly identified, representing just under half (47%) of the group, with consultants (17%) and industry association representatives (5%) also strongly represented.

Table 3: Medical products industry - respondent roles

There was a strong tendency for those in the medical products industry to identify more than one category of response here, with almost one in four responses highlighting more than one category. As would be expected given the dominance of this group, those who identified more than one category were most likely to be product sponsors who were also either product manufacturers or regulatory affairs consultants.

Those working in the medical products industry were spread across a range of organisational sizes (Table 3). Most commonly, respondents identified their organisation as having less than 20 employees (703; 48%). Twenty four percent (359) identified 20-99 employees, 21% (306) 100-599 employees, with minor numbers representing 8% of responses identifying in the largest employee categories (600-999, 54, 4%; 1000-1499 24, 2%; 1500+, 30, 2%).

Table 4: Medical products industry - number of roles

Figure 3: Medical products industry - respondent role

Figure 4: Medical products industry - number of organisational employees in Australia

Product sponsors were also asked to highlight the types of products that they sponsor. Medical devices (n=1003) were the most commonly identified grouping, with prescription medicines (457), over the counter medicines (349) and complementary medicines (311) all commonly identified amongst sponsors. Of the 1,493 responses received here, 455 identified more than one category. Most commonly, this included one or more medicines categories and the medical devices category, which accounted for 274 of the multiple selections identified. A combination of the various medicines categories accounted for a further 100 of the multiple selections identified.

Health professionals most commonly identified themselves in the "Other" category (n=158). A range of other roles were identified including high numbers of people who identified as scientists or researchers, business people, allied health professionals and those working in roles focussing on biology or biomedical engineering, manufacturing, importation or other business focussed areas.

Table 5: Health professionals - main role

Figure 5: Health professionals - respondent role

Those who identified as have a role in the community most commonly identified as consumers (n=48), with small numbers identifying as consumer representatives or advocates (19), Patients (18) and carers (13) (Table 6).

Table 6: Community - roles

Most retailers highlighted that their businesses included a small number of retail outlets, with 75% of the responses recorded highlighting 1-3 retail outlets (Table 7 and Figure 6). A further 12% indicated that they have between 4 and 10 retail outlets. Small numbers of respondents were identified in the remaining categories, however there were 15 respondents who identified that they were associated with large retailers with 100 or more outlets.

Table 7: Retailers - number of outlets

Figure 6: Retailers - Number of retail outlets