Qld facility to develop, make new drugs

19 Oct 2010, 3:26 pm   -   Source: AAP
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A new Queensland research facility will finally allow Australia to develop and manufacture drugs to treat diseases like cancer, diabetes, HIV and malaria.

A new Queensland research facility will finally allow Australia to develop and manufacture drugs to treat diseases such as cancer, diabetes, HIV and malaria.

Construction of the $354 million Translational Research Institute at Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital began on Monday, where a team of 500 to 700 scientists will call home.

They'll work to develop life-saving biopharmaceuticals - like Professor Ian Fraser's cervical cancer vaccine - that can then be manufactured in Australia, Premier Anna Bligh said.

Currently, such vaccines are sold off shore to large multi-national drug companies to be manufactured, as in Prof Fraser's case, Ms Bligh said.

"For too long, I think, we've seen good, Australian ideas have to go off shore to be developed," she said.

"This means that in the bio-medical area, that won't have to happen any more.

"We'll be able to develop, test and manufacture right here and that means we keep the ideas, and that's a great thing."

The centre, which is the largest of its kind in the southern hemisphere, would attract the world's brightest and encourage Australian scientists to stay at home, she said.

Research at the centre will concentrate on chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes, obesity and liver disease, as well as HIV, malaria and inflammatory and bone and joint diseases.

Drugs developed overseas would also be able to be manufactured at the facility.

Prof Fraser said the centre was the "realisation of a dream" and he looked forward to moving in when it was completed in 2012.

"People are best placed if they're working together in a facility with the necessary technology to make sure that we're doing world-leading, cutting-edge research and that's our goal and vision," he said.

The centre will house researchers from the University of Queensland, Queensland University of Technology, Mater Medical Research Institute and the Princess Alexandra Hospital.

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