Melbourne launches Asia-Pacific centre for pandemic treatments
Melbourne will bid to become a global centre for the development of new antiviral therapies to deal with future pandemics after receiving the largest donation in Australian medical history.
Geoff Cumming, a Canadian who lives in the city, has pledged at least A$250mn ($172mn) towards creating The Cumming Global Centre for Pandemic Therapeutics based in Parkville, adjacent to the University of Melbourne.
The state government of Victoria has also contributed A$75mn to the project which aims to raise A$1.5bn within 10 years for its research.
Biotech company Moderna is also establishing an mRNA vaccine manufacturing factory in the city as part of a push to bolster the region’s research.
“There’s now critical mass,” said Lewin of the city’s growing biotech sector.
Cumming, an economist whose background is in the oil, investment banking and retirement home sectors, donated C$100mn ($77mn) to the University of Calgary in 2014 for research into neuroscience and microbiomes.
He said the institute would become a leading biotech centre in the Asia-Pacific region, where many modern pandemics have arisen. “The other leading centres are in the northern hemisphere, so it is useful to be located here,” he said.
“This is going to be the centre, the body of the octopus with tentacles going out across the world,” he said.
This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Nic Fildes
