Manufacturer BioCina received $5 million each from the federal and state governments to become a “mRNA centre of excellence” producing therapeutic drugs and vaccines.

The company, which is based at pharmaceutical giant Pfizer’s former development facility in Thebarton, can already produce pasmids which are key components of mRNA vaccines.

It also has a fully-operational small-scale end-to-end mRNA process development laboratory at its 4600 square-metre site.

The company in 2021 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic applied for federal government funding to manufacture advanced mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, but that request was knocked back by the former Morrison Government.

Two years later, the manufacturer said the Albanese Federal Government had “decided that the potential for BioCina was tremendous moving forward”, and had agreed to help fund the expansion of its manufacturing facility.

“I think we’re at a great point for this type of investment because now we’re going to go all the way to full-scale… production for mRNA,” BioCina CEO Mark Womack told reporters this morning.

“That will enable us to take our mRNA technology and our abilities to develop and manufacture therapeutics that are mRNA-based to the world, starting in Australia, but then also we will take them globally.

“We will truly be a global player in the industry.”

The state and federal government funding will enable BioCina to supply clinical trials, and to scale-up its facility to full commercial levels.

BioCina will hire 35 additional full-time staff as part of its expansion.

Womack said there was “no end in sight” to what mRNA vaccine technology could achieve, including addressing diseases such as cystic fibrosis, malaria, tuberculosis and cancers.

He said BioCina was not currently producing vaccines to prevent those diseases, but it would work with other drug developers and technology companies in the future to do so.

Premier Peter Malinauskas said the state government wanted to “capitalise” on the growing mRNA pharmaceutical market.

“I invite people to sort of take their minds back only a couple of years ago at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic – there was a race around the world to find a vaccine solution to COVID,” he said.

“Thankfully, mRNA technology came to the fore at just the right time to be able to see literally thousands if not hundreds of thousands of lives saved right around the world as a result of that technology.

“We have the skills, the know-how and the capability to advance that technology even further right here in Adelaide and South Australia.”

Asked if the federal government grant was contingent on the state government also chipping in funding toward BioCina’s expansion, Malinauskas said: “There has been a genuine collaboration, yes”.

According to the state government, the global market for mRNA therapeutics is expected to grow from $46.7 billion in 2021 to $101.3 billion by 2026.

InDaily reported in December that biomedical companies which form part of a $12 million government-funded bioscience incubator in Thebarton would be forced to relocate due to the Torrens to Darlington North-South corridor upgrade.

But Womack said BioCina would not be impacted by those works as its facility was further away from South Road.