South Australia to Become Home to 1st Operational mRNA Facility Outside US

A pharmacist prepares the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 mRNA vaccine at a pharmacy prototype clinic in Halifax on March 9, 2021. Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press

South Australia has announced a partnership with the international biotech enterprise, BioCina, to become home to the first mRNA development and production facility in Australia and make homegrown mRNA vaccines a reality.

Last year, U.S. biotech giant Moderna and the Australian government agreed to build the first mRNA vaccine manufacturing facility outside North America.

Construction began on the Monash University campus in Victoria in Dec. 2022 and is expected to become operational in 2024.

While Victoria may be the most financially committed, South Australia—which already has a fully-operational laboratory for developing mRNA vaccines—may give Victoria a run for its money.

The Adelaide facility is owned by BioCina—rated third in the world for expertise in manufacturing vaccines and mRNA products—who took over it from Pfizer in 2020.

The BioCina facility at Thebarton Courtesy of BioCina

BioCina has already established capabilities to produce plasmids which are critical components of mRNA vaccines, and a small-scale end-to-end mRNA process development laboratory.

With a joint grant from the Australian and South Australian Labor governments of $10 million (US$6.7 million), the manufacturer will be able to scale up its capacity to produce mRNA pharmaceuticals significantly.

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas welcomed the grant and said his state was ready to expand vaccine manufacturing.

“This expansion will enable South Australia to increase its economic footprint in the surging biomedical industry,” he said in a statement on May 3.

“This expansion will enable South Australia to increase its economic footprint in the surging biomedical industry,” Premier Peter Malinauskas said. Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

Minister for Health and Wellbeing Chris Picton added that the BioCina centre is different because it delivers a complete service without a need for third parties.

“BioCina’s mRNA Centre of Excellence in South Australia will be Australia’s first mRNA capability able to offer end-to-end client services to support the entire mRNA manufacturing and development process,” he said.

Safeguarding Against Future Health Crises

Currently, Australia imports all mRNA vaccines, such as Pfizer and Moderna. The only COVID-19 vaccine manufactured domestically is AstraZeneca, which was discontinued from usage as of March 20, 2023.

The Australian government announced it was looking into the mRNA market since July 2021, with many large pharmaceutical companies such as CSL, BioCina, Luina Bio and IDT bidding for a position.

Part of a "freezer farm," a football field-sized facility for storing finished COVID-19 vaccines, under construction in Kalamazoo, Mich., in October 2020. Jeremy Davidson/Pfizer via AP

Health and aged care minister Mark Butler said COVID-19 highlighted Australia’s vaccine supply problem.

“This investment will ultimately build the capacity to produce millions of doses of mRNA vaccines per week, adding resilience and capacity to Australia’s sovereign vaccine agenda,” he said.

Similar to the Victorian case, BioCina originated from university grounds.

“The initial facility now owned by BioCina was spun out of the University of Adelaide in 1982,” Professor Anton Middelberg, University of Adelaide’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President of Research, said in a release.

“Since then, the company has gone from strength to strength on the back of investment, excellent research, and access to a skilled workforce.”

“The University of Adelaide is extremely proud of its ongoing collaboration with BioCina, which is a great example of how universities can work alongside industry to deliver mutually beneficial outcomes.”

Head of the School of Chemistry Engineering, Professor David Lewis, said that university experts will be working with BioCina to revolutionise traditional methods of providing medicine for individuals.

“Our experts in bioprocess engineering, advanced sensing, robotics, and automation will work together with BioCina on invention, innovation, and diffusion of new technology,” Prof. Lewis said.

“We are providing a multi-disciplinary approach to scale the production of targeted mRNA therapeutic drugs and vaccines with the development of new technology for personalised medicine.”