Boosting Australia’s vaccine future at Southern Hemisphere’s first cell-based facility

The Southern Hemisphere’s first cell-based vaccine manufacturing facility has opened in Tullamarine.

We’re proud to have supported CSL Seqirus’s new $1 billion vaccine manufacturing facility, which will produce cell-based vaccines to protect the health of Australians.

The facility will produce:

• influenza vaccines
• the world’s only Q-Fever vaccine
• anti-venom for local snakes, spiders and marine creatures.

It will also create more than 350 high-skilled jobs across Victoria’s thriving advanced manufacturing sector.

The facility has capacity to rapidly scale up production, to make sure Australia has access to vaccines during any future influenza pandemic.

CSL Seqirus is the first company in the world to develop cell-based influenza vaccines at commercial scale. This facility is the only supplier of this innovative technology in the Southern Hemisphere.

Cell-based manufacturing is a technology that is easier and faster than traditional methods. CSL Seqirus’s cell-based technology:

• makes more effective vaccines
• allows greater production at a large scale
• uses fewer critical materials.

The project was supported by the Victorian and Australian Governments. CSL’s expansion in the state keeps Victoria at the forefront of the global influenza vaccine market. The facility will be fully operational in 2026.

An agreement between the Australian Government and CSL Seqirus has secured the supply of these cell-based vaccines for pandemic protection for Australia over the next decade, alongside life-saving anti-venoms and the Q fever vaccine.

We identified medical research and advanced manufacturing as priority areas in the Victorian Economic Growth Statement. The statement drives initiatives that unlock economic growth, create jobs, and foster a culture of innovation.