TRI and Vaxxas receive funding for Australian-first clinical manufacturing and hands-on training facility
In an Australian first, MTPConnect - the Medical Technologies and Pharmaceuticals Industry Growth Centre today announced it will provide $500,000 to establish a clinical manufacturing and training facility over two years, with proposed matched funding coming from the Translational Research Institute (TRI) and Vaxxas.
Charles Ross, Head of Clinical Operations and Supply at Vaxxas said “With the benefit of MTPConnect funding, this project will establish a medtech and pharmaceutical manufacturing training hub that enables external parties the opportunity of hands-on training, using state-of-the-art facilities and equipment.”
“Additionally, the project will establish a “turn-key” early stage clinical product manufacturing facility, at the Translational Research Institute (TRI) in Brisbane, which can be used for a wide-range of clean to sterile medical device, biotechnology and pharmaceutical products.”
Access to cleanroom manufacturing facilities and personnel for the manufacture of early stage clinical trial material is very limited in Australia and this is considered a missed opportunity. This project aims to address this gap by establishing a manufacturing and training facility that can provide a smooth translation of investigational medical products from research through to early human clinical trial supply.
The project will also address the barrier of a lack of trained staff that understand cGMP manufacturing processes and Quality Management Systems. External parties from all over Australia will have the opportunity to learn in a fully operational state-of-the-art small scale GMP production facility. TRI and other university researchers will have access to training to provide industry experience and provide a pool of trained staff available for casual employment as cleanroom operators.
This year, MTPConnect has selected 20 national MTP projects to receive $7.385 million in funding over two years with proposed matched funding of $15.2million coming from the sector.
For more information on MTPConnect’s Project Fund Program and the successful applicants visit:
