New cancer drugs could soon be trialled in Queensland after one of the state's research facilities received the green light to produce cellular therapies.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration has granted QIMR Berghofer's manufacturing facility, Q-Gen, regulatory approval to produce new cancer drugs.
It would place the facility as a world leader in the fight against cancer, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said in Philadelphia during her US trade mission.
"Queensland punches above its weight when it comes to medical research, and this decision will help advance the discoveries being made in laboratories across the state," she said.
Ms Palaszczuk said the state already had the infrastructure and scientific personnel to develop treatments, but the approval would help attract companies to commercialise the drugs.
"This is about diversifying the economy," she said.
"This about putting biotechnology front and centre - about creating the jobs for the future."
One of the therapies being developed involves taking a patient's immune cells from the blood and "training" them to recognise the antigens found in particular cancers.
The cells then attack that cancer when they are re-infused back into the patient's system.
The treatment is safe and has no major side effects, preliminary trials have shown.
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