Queensland Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie has officially unveiled the name of Translational Research Institute’s Australian-first cGMP biomedical manufacturing facility, nearing completion next door to TRI at Woolloongabba.
The facility has been named ENTRI, acknowledging its important role in lifting barriers to entry for biotech and medtech scaleups in Australia and enabling the translation of research from bench to bedside.
Unveiling ENTRI before an audience of AusBiotech members at TRI, the Deputy Premier acknowledged the importance of the facility to Queensland and Australia.
“ENTRI is ideally situated on the Princess Alexandra Hospital campus and within Brisbane’s thriving Boggo Road Innovation Precinct, and will launch Queensland as the epicentre of biomanufacturing in Australia,” said the Deputy Premier.
“As part of the Queensland Government’s re-focus on three new priority industries, including biomedical, I’m looking forward to seeing the industry development and innovation that will take shape at ENTRI and the broader precinct.
“The new $180.6 million Sovereign Industry Development Fund announced in the Budget 2025-26 is now open for applications to help accelerate the growth of the sector and unlock new economic opportunities across the State."
ENTRI is jointly funded by TRI and the Queensland Government and will address a critical capability gap in Australia, enabling companies to access cGMP cleanrooms, the global gold standard for bio manufacturing.
TRI Chief Executive Officer Professor Maher Gandhi said the $100 million plus investment will accelerate research from the bench to the bedside and create a pipeline for future jobs in the health, medtech and biological sector.
“This will really make people sit up and take notice,” said Professor Gandhi. “Ahead of the international launch of our Expression of Interest campaign at BIO 2025, we have had some great discussions with key life sciences stakeholders.
“The stakeholders are excited by the possibility we are creating and the opportunity the facility provides to forge connections with government and regulatory bodies, industry and the research sector.
“We are confident our new capability will be attractive to international companies because it enables the integration of manufacturing with clinical trials in Australia, enabling internationals to take advantage of Australia’s speed to the clinic and further reducing the overall of cost of development programs through Australia’s R&D Tax Incentive,” said Professor Gandhi.
TRI Head of Commercial Operations Dr Ryan Parlett said the facility will enable the manufacture of a range of products, including biologics (both mammalian and microbial), pDNA, RNA-based products (including mRNA-LNP), cell therapies (both allogeneic and autologous), drug-device combination products, and support drug product (including sterile liquid vials).
“Tenants will have access to cGMP cleanrooms, PC2 compliant wet labs and office space to enable companies to undertake their own cGMP manufacturing, onsite Quality Control, process and analytical development,” he said.
“Combined with onsite technical support and training, companies will be able to scale up and continue ongoing cGMP manufacturing for Phase 1, Phase 2 and Phase 3 clinical trials that meets both international and Australian requirements.
“ENTRI offers the benefits of in-house manufacturing, combined with the advantages of an external site. This delivers strategic benefits, streamlined operations and long-term cost efficiencies.”