Melbourne the ideal place for Australia’s next vaccine...

Melbourne the ideal place for Australia’s next vaccine manufacturing hub

Australia’s vaccine rollout has partly been constrained by this problem — but now Victoria has emerged as the obvious choice to fix it.

Victoria has twice as many active RNA researchers as any other state and 70 per cent of the nation’s pharmaceutical and biotech companies, making it the ideal place for Australia’s next vaccine manufacturing hub.

As the federal government deliberates on whether to stump up cash to set up mRNA manufacturing in Victoria, Innovation Minister Jaala Pulford has spruiked why the state must be the one to make the hi-tech doses.

The Andrews government has committed $50m to setting up the hub but the full scale of the permanent vaccine-making capability is expected to cost $500m.

The commonwealth is prepared to add significant funding to kick start mRNA manufacturing, but has put the process out to market and is expected to make a decision as early as next week.

Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines teach the body to resist Covid-19 by creating harmless copies of its spike protein.

Pfizer and Moderna’s highly effective vaccines both use mRNA and Australia’s rollout has been constrained by being unable to manufacture these types of doses on our shores.

Australia’s rollout has been constrained by being unable to manufacture mRNA-based vaccines.

Ms Pulford said Victoria was the obvious choice for a site to fix this problem.

She said the technology could also potentially be used for developing vaccines that had previously been impossible, such as for preventing HIV and the Zika virus.

“Victoria is the only place in Australia that has both the scientific expertise and the manufacturing capability to establish Covid-19 mRNA vaccine manufacturing,” Ms Pulford said.

“But we will go further than that – we have the ambition and ability to make a significant contribution to the breakthroughs that mRNA can and will make – to improve lives and save lives locally, in our own region and around the world,.”

Monash University Professor is also leading a team in Victoria to create Australia’s first locally made mRNA Covid-19 vaccine, with trials to begin this year.

Nobel-prize winning immunologist Peter Doherty has previously said Victoria is a “no-brainer” to be Australia’s choice for the manufacturing hub.

If the state is overlooked, the Andrews government is prepared to fund the full scheme itself.

Innovation Minister Jaala Pulford says the state must be the one to build the hi-tech doses.

Victoria’s lead scientist, Amanda Caples, this week told a public forum the state was already at work looking for companies with the manufacturing expertise needed to produce the doses.

“This process has been highly successful with over 60 responses received today, including representatives of multinational engineering firms,” Dr Caples said.

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“Why has that been so straightforward? It’s because Victoria is the home of pharmaceutical manufacturing.”

Nearly 60 per cent of Australia’s pharmaceutical manufacturing and exports are from Victoria.