Hansen Yuncken has been appointed to help deliver the Vaxxas Biomedical Facility, which will enable research into needle-free vaccine technology.
Located at Northshore, Brisbane, the facility will help with continued research and development as well as the manufacture of the needle-free vaccine technology.
Vaxxas will be repurposing 4200 square metres of warehouse space previously used for airport parking.
The existing building, positioned close to the future Brisbane 2032 Olympics Games Village, will be re-clad, refurbished and fitted out specifically for Vaxxas to accommodate ISO standard clean rooms, PC2 and BC2 certified laboratories, engineering and production spaces, and corporate offices.
“We are delighted to be taking on such a pivotal role for Economic Development Queensland and Vaxxas and are committed to delivering real outcomes to the highest standards,” Greg Baumann, QLD State Manager at Hansen Yuncken said.
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“We bring extensive expertise in building laboratory facilities including careful planning and innovative thinking, using BIM technology to map base building elements and manage complex services installations to the project. We look forward to creating a world-class facility that will be home to a national-first needle-free vaccine manufacturing facility.”
Queensland Deputy Premier, Steven Miles, said the company was awarded the contract to refurbish an existing warehouse at Northshore, which will create more than 80 construction jobs.
“Once construction is finished in early 2023, Vaxxas expects to eventually manufacture enough needle-free vaccine kits to deliver 300 million doses each year at full capacity,” Miles said.
“Over the next 10 years, this rate of production is expected to contribute hundreds of millions of dollars to the Queensland economy.
Vaxxas Chief Operations and Development Officer Angus Forster said Vaxxas’ high density micro-array patch (HD-MAP) technology can deposit a vaccine through the surface of the skin in just a few seconds.
“Our world-leading technology uses a small patch with a surface of thousands of micro-projections, just a quarter of a millimetre long, which are coated with a vaccine,” Forster said.
“Our clinical research shows that this elicits a more efficient and effective immune response than traditional syringes due to the abundance of immune cells immediately below the surface of the skin.”
“There’s also the opportunity to make the transportation of vaccines to rural and remote communities much easier as the vaccine patch can be stored at temperatures as high as 40ºC.”