200 new jobs as injectables give SA economy a shot in the arm
Up to 200 new jobs and around $65 million a year for a decade is set to be injected into the state economy by the local establishment of a new ‘injectable medicines’ factory, in what the State Government is hailing as a “huge win for all South Australians”.
InDaily can reveal biopharmaceutical company GEN1 Biotechnology has agreed to build a first-of-its-kind ‘fill-and-finish’ factory in Adelaide – taking base compounds and formulating them into medicines to fill syringes, vials and cartridges as ready-to-use injectables to ship to hospitals, clinics and pharmacies to treat chronic conditions including cancer, hypertension and diabetes.
It is a boon for the Government’s aspiration to bolster SA’s credentials in the health industries sector, given ready-to-use injectable medicines are all currently imported.
Pending the establishment of a suitable site and international investment, the plant will produce injectable medicines for both domestic and overseas use – markets worth $10 billion and $230 billion a year respectively, and growing at more than 15 per cent a year.
GEN1’s Adelaide-based chief financial officer Greg Sheridan said in a statement the company “quickly honed in on Adelaide for our new factory after looking at several locations across Australia”, noting that Health Industries SA was “very responsive and provided invaluable support”.
The Government says the project would create 40 new jobs in construction, with another 110 ongoing and around 50 more expected through the supply chain.
Health Industries Minister Jack Snelling said the project was a “huge win for all South Australians”.
“Labor is committed to transforming our economy and delivering hi-tech, high value jobs… GEN1’s establishment in Adelaide is expected to inject more than $650 million into SA’s economy over the next 10 years,” he said.
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An Australian company backed by Asian and European investors, GEN1 specialises in the global development of manufacturing plants for biopharmaceuticals.
They were lobbied by Health Industries SA, which will stump up “early-stage establishment costs”, after last week’s Mid-Year Budget Review included for the first time a $6 million Health Industries Fund to deliver grants and other incentives to help entice operators to set up shop locally.
Health Industries SA chief Marco Baccanti said: “We identified GEN1 as a great addition to Adelaide’s fast-growing life sciences community.”
“Our team of business professionals understood what the company needed from government and got that delivered quickly,” he said.
