Panbio nets grant, moves most manufacturing to Brisbane

Medical diagnostics company Panbio (ASX:PBO) has been awarded a Queensland government grant towards the cost of developing its new R&D and manufacturing facility in Brisbane.

The state's premier, Peter Beattie, announced the grant yesterday in San Francisco, where he is attending the BIO 2004 international biotechnology conference.

Panbio CEO and MD Jim Porter said he was not yet able to disclose the size of the grant. He would only say it was "significant" and that PanBio was delighted to be able expand and consolidate its operations in Queensland. The company is still negotiating on its new site, and plans to move in early next year.

Some antigens currently manufactured for Panbio's viral diagnostics at its Columbia, Maryland, facilities will in future be made at the new Brisbane centre.

About 90 per cent of the company's manufacturing operations will be concentrated in Brisbane, enhancing manufacturing efficiency and reducing costs, and allowing research and development to be expanded, Porter said. The Maryland operation will continue to provide marketing and technical support for its products in North America.

Porter says PanBio has no ambition to relocate to the US - "Brisbane is an ideal location, close to major centres of science and technology. We're happy here."

He said Brisbane was also an idea base from which to expand markets for its infectious-disease diagnostics in tropical Asian nations.

"We have the world's leading market share in dengue fever diagnostics, and our technology platforms can be applied to all infectious diseases," he said.

"There's a significant market for a Japanese encephalitis diagnostic. Our customers say it's heavily under-diagnosed in Asia, and there's no good diagnostic available. We're moving quite rapidly with our research collaborators to develop one, and we're about six months away from commercialisation.

PanBio has recently acquired a new one-step, antibody-based diagnostic technique from Stanford University, which reduces the three hours currently required for an ELISA test to 6-10 minutes.

It has also licensed in a new multiplex diagnostic technology that enables medical workers in the field to perform simultaneous tests for several diseases on a single drop of blood. Porter said the new test was not only faster and more versatile, but much cheaper to manufacture.