I am sure that either GSK or BioDiem would have welcomed a 10 year offtake deal worth much less than the $1 billion given to CSL for its old-tech plant that may be ready by 2026.
Do either GSK or BioDiem make Flu Vaccines. or can the get a license to do so?
The Seqirus contract is fora flu vaccine, which is a different need than CV19 vaccines.
The new Seqirus plant is being built for primarily
flu-vaccines and to use the new cell based technology, moving away from the old egg based method currently used. The Federal money is essentially just agreeing to buy enough flu vaccine for a decade for Australia. But this also then secures that a lot more flu vaccine (and other products) is made here for export.
The state-of-the-art facility will use innovative cell-based technology to produce influenza vaccines for use in both influenza pandemics and seasonal vaccination programs – and will be the only cell-based influenza vaccine manufacturing facility in the Southern Hemisphere.
16 Nov 2020 Seqirus will build the only cell-based influenza vaccine manufacturing facility in the Southern Hemisphere – producing seasonal and pandemic flu vaccines, Seqirus’ proprietary...
www.seqirus.com
As for mRNA, anyone that can make such a vaccine for CV19 here in Australia can approach the Feds. Flu has a known long term demand. CV19 may.
However mRNA may get built for other purposes and it sounds like from the link you provided that GSK has little interest, whereas BioDem does and has been in some level of discussion with the Vic Gov.
The Victorian government has been negotiating with BioDiem, as it is no doubt with CSL and IDT, but will have in its mind the imperative of retaining the GSK site as a pharmaceutical hub.
I think a plant in likely, once the numbers stack up.
But even BioDerm acknowledge that it is not an overnight process even when you have an existing plant to convert.
BioDiem chairman Ken Windle, who worked at the plant and became Asia Pacific head of GSK before striking out on his own, said the company could produce an mRNA vaccine within a year of getting access to the plant.