IDT offers rival bid to make 100 millions MRNA vaccines, page-3

The really big aspect of this is the partnerships and developing the ecosystem. IDT is partnered with Monash, which is #2 in the world for pharmacy and pharmacology. The Victorian government has already put in $50 million to develop mRNA capacity, in a partnership with Monash, The Doherty Institute and IDT. As we know, the fed government is working with the Doherty Institute for modelling on vaccines for Covid.

Professor Doherty himself has said that Melbourne is a "no-brainer" for developing mRNA production. Do you think he's talking about CSL here? I don't. I think he's talking about this Monash/Doherty/Vic Gov/IDT partnership that is developing (and is already developed). This seems like an ideal partnership for the fed gov to invest in. There may also be some political issues for going with CSL, given they're still producing AZ until the end of the year, and given the whole "all your eggs in one basket" approach that CSL now represents.

The CSL pitch has no detail around building an ecosystem for research and development, at this point is seems to me like a question "dumb money". Of course, when it comes to CSL, it's a lot of "dumb money", so we'll see how that influences things. Both pitches will deliver production in 18 months. IDT is a brownfield site, so you'd imagine that lowers the risk again.

Very interesting times.