The Victorian Government has put up $50 million for its own vaccine-making facility.

The state is funding a new centre that will be able to produce mRNA coronavirus vaccines like those offered by pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna. 

The mRNA approach is easier reconfigure for new variants of the virus than conventional inoculations such as AstraZeneca’s, which CSL is producing in Australia.

But the $50 million is just the start, with estimates suggesting a large-scale mRNA vaccine manufacturing plant would cost more than $100 million and take up to three years to build.

Acting Premier James Merlino has written to Prime Minister Scott Morrison and contacted federal Health Minister Greg Hunt about further funding support. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken the technology of mRNA vaccines from an exciting prospect to a very real and central part of the world’s medical arsenal. 

This type of vaccine contains genetic code from a virus, rather than the virus itself, meaning they can teach human cells how to make a protein that triggers an immune response.

Australia currently cannot manufacture mRNA-type vaccines, leaving it reliant on imports and ongoing delays in supply.

Mr Merlino says the funding also supports a collaborative project with Monash University and Melbourne University, along with the Doherty Institute and other research centres, which will look at ways to develop capacity to manufacture mRNA vaccines.

“This is a very significant announcement, not just for Victoria but for Australia,” he said. 

“It will be the first in the southern hemisphere.”

Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley said mRNA facility would remain extremely useful even if COVID-19 is not an issue. 

“Treatments in cancer, treatments in rare diseases, treatments in all sorts of other emerging fields where the ability to use this new messenger RNA technology is so critical to evolving fields of health and wellbeing,” Mr Foley said. 

“This technology is the way of the future.”

Some experts say that $50 million might be enough to get machinery to make the mRNA and then pack it into fat-based nanoparticles for delivery. 

The later fill and finish steps could then be provided by an established manufacturer such as CSL.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt says the “government is strongly supportive of onshore mRNA manufacturing”.

“The government has commissioned an audit of organisations within Australia with mRNA production capability and we are working with the biotech industry to consider ways to establish and sustain large-scale mRNA vaccine manufacturing in Australia,” Mr Hunt said.