BioOra wins A$7.7m Queensland government grant for Brisbane CAR-T manufacturing site
What's the deal? New Zealand biotech BioOra has won a A$7.7m ($9.4m) grant from the Queensland governmentDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → to set up shop in Brisbane.
The money comes from the state's A$180.6m Sovereign Industry Development Fund. It will help BioOra establish and fit out an automated manufacturing site for its novel Car T-cell therapy.
Why now? Queensland is courting biotech firms to build a homegrown advanced manufacturing base.
For BioOra, the grant covers the heavy cost of clinical and commercial-scale production facilities — a major hurdle for cell therapy companies scaling up.
The signal: BioOra is still an early-stage company, and securing government money to fund commercial-scale manufacturing lets it clear one of the costliest barriers in cell therapy without diluting equity. For Queensland's government investment arm, the bet is that backing such firms early will anchor a homegrown advanced manufacturing base.
Read more: NBR
Image: Sheykhhasan & Manoochehri, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
