$1m medical business centre for Sydney

Ms Firth says the initiative will provide a single point of contact for overseas researchers and pharmaceutical and medical technology companies.

"It also helps us attract and retain world-class clinicians, researchers and scientists, and makes NSW attractive for them to be in," she said.

"It also provides a mechanism for further development of products at home so that our researchers don't have to go overseas to attract international investment."

She says the initiative is designed to ensure the state's future economic prosperity is not reliant on short-term resource booms.

"The reason why it's so important is that the global clinical trials industry is worth $10 billion," she said.

"Global revenues from clinical trials increased by 15 per cent in the last year alone, so it's obviously worth a lot of money."

http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/09/24/2041279.htm

http://www.osmr.nsw.gov.au/lsra_round2/nsw_clinical_trials_centre

http://www.clinicaltrials.org.au/