Working with us – 
Vaccines and therapeutics

CSIRO’s biologics facilities play a vital 
role in the biomedical ecosystem. 
Our expert scientists and world-class 
facilities provide companies and other 
research organisations the opportunity 
to produce biologics at the scale and 
quality required for pre-clinical and 
clinical applications. 

We make antibodies, antibody 
conjugates (e.g. theranostics) and 
vaccines (protein subunit vaccines, 
viral vector vaccines, virus-like particles) 
and other biologics and have the 
necessary accreditation for our partners 
to evaluate their research in clinical trials 

Our laboratories: CSIRO National 
Vaccine and Therapeutics Laboratory, 
NCRISO Mammalian Biologics Facility, 
NCRIS Microbial Research and 
Development Facility, and Quality 
Control Laboratories.

Support for SMEs

CSIRO offers research organisations, 
start-ups and small-to-medium 
enterprises (SMEs) some excellent 
opportunities to work with us through 
faciliated R&D programs, such as 
incubators, accelerators and more. 
We offer funding support to eligible 
organisations. We’re here to help 
you navigate the research ecosystem 
and access our world-class facilities 
and researchers. 

Case Study: 
Manufacturing a 
COVID-19 vaccine

CSIRO worked closely with the 
University of Queensland and 
the Peter Doherty Institute to 
support the rapid development and 
manufacture of two COVID vaccine 
candidates, which entered clinical 
trials in Australia.

That was done through our 
biologics pilot facility here in 
Melbourne – which we created in 
2016 in anticipation of ‘Disease 
X’ – then in 2022 we increased 
our capability with the opening 
of the new National Vaccine and 
Therapeutics Laboratory. 

“(CSIRO’s National Vaccine and Therapeutics Lab) will strengthen onshore 
manufacturing and increase the competitive advantage of Australian SMEs through 
the manufacture of high value, high quality products. It will help biomedical SMEs 
bridge the dreaded valley of death as well, faced by many like emerging firms… 
And will take great Australian ideas from the lab to commercial scale so companies 
can succeed locally and compete globally.” - The Hon Ed Husic MP, Minister for 
Industry and Science.



Candidate 
discovery

 Regulated manufacture

Clinical trials

unmet clinical 
need

in vivo target 
biology and 
validation

cell line 
development

CSIRO

SMEs/Pharma

Academia/SMEs

 Process development

Upstream process 
development

Downstream 
process 
development

Analytics 
development 

Analytics 
qualification

Qualified assays 
for batch 
release

Bespoke cell assay 
development & testing 
efficacy cytotoxicity 
target engagement

Product 
characterisation

Scale down 
process 
characterisation

Technology 
transfer to 
manufacturer

Stability studies

Antibody-
drug conjugate 
development

Process 
scale up 

Internal technology 
transfer

Regulated 
manufacturing

Fill & Finish

Cell line 
development

Phase I

Phase II

Phase III

Working with us – 
Vaccines and therapeutics

Quality Assurance


candidate 
identification