Building Queensland’s biotechnology manufacturing capacity

Queensland is ideally placed geographically to take advantage of the extensive markets now developing globally for world class biotech products. It’s also well placed to develop the basic and applied science to supply those markets with products based on our existing expertise in health and medical research.

The locoregional market for quality products of biotechnology will grow further over the next 10-20 years, particularly in Indonesia and south-east Asia. Queensland as a site for biotechnology development is well placed to take advantage of the geographic proximity to Southeast Asia of our biotechnology cluster in Brisbane, which encompasses 3 internationally recognised universities, 2 world leading research institutes, and several academic teaching hospitals, in and surrounding Brisbane.

Individually these institutions are competitive on a world stage in the field of basic biomedical science: collectively they should be unbeatable.

Now is the time to complement Queensland’s skills in developing novel drugs and devices through research with manufacturing facilities, based on world class technology that will enable Queensland to expand its capacity to manufacture biomedical products to good manufacturing practice standards.

The Brisbane and Southeast Queensland aggregate of biotechnology manufacturing facilities is readily accessible by road, rail and air by the markets we aim to supply. 

There is a natural coalescence of facilities along the south-east and south-west railway corridors, round Dutton Park, extending out to Springfield and the Gold Coast, and linked by rail to Brisbane Airport.

To take advantage of this opportunity to expand our biotechnology manufacturing capacity, there is a need for high tech cleanroom spaces housing state of the art research equipment, automated manufacture, and quality testing facilities.

Queensland can also benefit further by expanding the local bioscience and biotechnology capacity through specifically developed tertiary education courses, supplemented by local and international internships designed to ensure a steady supply of talented bioscientists, quality assurance teams, and providers of high-level computing and artificial intelligence systems.

Displaying Queensland’s capacity in biotechnology should be facilitated by hosting regular Queensland government supported biotechnology trade meetings (“OzBio”) along the lines of the USA Bio conferences, focussing specifically on bringing our regional markets and our local industries together.