The federal government has stumped up over $14 million to reduce the burden of allergic disease.
Earlier this week the Federal Government announced nearly $15 million in new funding for key allergy initiatives.
The National Allergy Centre of Excellence and the National Allergy Council, two initiatives born from a partnership between the Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy (ASCIA) and Allergy & Anaphylaxis Australia, will receive an additional $14.6 million in financial support.
The funding extension will allow the NACE and NAC to continue to operate until June 2028.
NACE director Professor Kirsten Perrett said the funding means leading allergy bodies can continue to develop the country’s evidence-based response in people living with allergic disease.
“There is no cure and no time to waste when it comes to allergies, which touch almost every family, school and healthcare service,” she said.
“Our focus is to address complex clinical challenges through embedded allergy research, rigorous evaluation and the rapid translation of emerging evidence into clinical care. We are ensuring Australia remains at the forefront of allergy research.”
Dr Sandra Vale, CEO of the NAC, was equally positive about the potential impact that could result the new funding agreement.
“Allergies can take a huge physical and emotional toll on people with allergic reactions, anaphylaxis and while rare, deaths are increasing and present an everyday risk for many families,” she said in a statement.
“This funding will directly support our work in delivering accessible, nationally standardised and evidence-based public health initiatives, education, training and everyday support for people living with allergic disease and those who care for them.”
Allergic disease is a significant public health challenge for Australia. A 2025 report developed for ASCIA and the NAC by Deloitte indicated that over eight million people are affected by allergic disease each year, at a cost of almost $19 billion to the Australian economy.
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The NAC and NACE were first launched in 2022 from a $26.9 million federal funding package.
Since then, the pair of peak bodies have trained more than 230,000 educators and healthcare professionals in life-saving anaphylaxis stills, developed the allergy assist education platform to support doctors deliver allergy-based care and synthesised over 5000 academic articles in Australia’s first drug and food allergy living evidence collection.
“The NAC and the NACE collaboration has already made significant inroads, and we now have an unprecedented opportunity to develop more targeted, effective public health responses to allergic disease in this country,” said Dr Melanie Wong, ASCIA nominated director of the NAC.
