Melbourne firm a step ahead in race to make mRNA vaccines Jill MargoHealth editor
Aug 18, 2021 – 6.00pm
While corporate giant CSL might be the front-runner in the race to manufacture mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 onshore, another Victorian candidate, IDT, has already begun preparing its plant and could be first off the mark.
Contract pharmaceutical manufacturer, IDT, has an established sterile facility that is uncommitted and available at Boronia, in outer Melbourne.
Dr Sparling inside the Boronia plant. Wayne Taylor
“We have the potential to produce mRNA vaccines on an industrial scale within 18 months and have jabs in arms by early 2023, providing we receive a technical package from one of the registered providers,” said CEO Dr David Sparling.
This week, CSL told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, it was planning two new facilities in Victoria. While its Elizabeth North facility could produce doses of the drug substance within 18 months, its industrial-scale facility at Tullamarine could be completed in 2024.
IDT and CSL are two of a dozen entities that responded to the federal government’s call for candidates to manufacture mRNA vaccines on a population scale.
As the manufacturing process has distinct stages, rather than one overall winner, to build supply resilience the government may appoint several entities, or opt for a chain of manufacturers. Its decision is expected in a week or two.
IDT, a listed company with $14 million in revenue last year, said its Boronia facility is in the final stages of readiness. “We think this gives us a material time advantage compared to greenfield sites that need to be built and commissioned,” said Dr Sparling.
While it will do the final fill and finish, it has the capacity for the two other stages: making the RNA and making the tiny fatty envelopes that protect the RNA on its journey through the body.
“We are Australia’s last remaining small molecule active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturer,” said Dr Sparling.
His 2023 promise is based on vertical integration. “It’s an aggressive timeline. The only details of the other bids that I’ve seen are in the public domain and it looks like we will be one of the quickest, if not the quickest,”
But how did Pfizer and Moderna do it even faster? They already had the manufacturing capability, which they are now expanding, he said.
“We are working with the global equipment and control systems provider that worked on some of those manufacturing expansion activities with Moderna and Pfizer, and so we’re very confident in the timelines we’ve put forward,” he said.
IDT has a second broader stream too. It intends to use its facility to translate mRNA clinical research and development on a smaller commercial scale.
To this end, it has an alliance of entities to provide content to build this ecosystem – “so the facility is not just a white elephant used for pandemics”, said Dr Sparling.
An important alliance is with Monash’s Biomedicine Discovery Institute, which has 65 RNA scientists currently working on new vaccines, making it the biggest such group in Australia.
Sarah Newton, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Enterprise) at Monash, said a feasibility study has suggested IDT has a production line similar in size to CSL.
Australia needs its own mRNA production to provide a consistent supply of reagents and materials to produce the mRNA for the vaccines.
“To date only Big Pharma players like Moderna and Pfizer have established the supply chains to do this at scale and Australia will need to join a very long queue for priority access.”
She said a combination of world-first mRNA researchers, a manufacturing facility and mRNA production by a Big Pharma, would enable Australia to create new COVID-19 vaccines in quantities large enough to trial, in its own backyard, without relying on those done in other countries.
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