Making it Down Under: ASX healthcare stocks manufacturing in Australia

• Growing focus on strengthening Australia’s manufacturing capability across a range of sectors, including healthcare
• Australia has a long history of medical manufacturing, with CSL established by the federal government in 1916 after vaccine supplies were disrupted by WWI
• Several large, small and mid-cap ASX healthcare companies continue to invest in manufacturing facilities in Australia

Recent years have highlighted the importance of Australia’s manufacturing sovereignty across a range of sectors.

Australia is geographically distant from much of the world and many of its major trading partners, a point US President Donald Trump once highlighted when describing our surplus with the US.

“We have a surplus with Australia. One of the few. And the reason is they buy a lot of airplanes. They’re rather far away and they need lots of airplanes,” Trump said.

From the supply chain disruptions exposed by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 to the latest conflict in the Middle East, global events have underscored the risks of relying heavily on overseas suppliers for critical goods.

Responding to these concerns, there has been a greater push to build Australia’s manufacturing capability across sectors, including healthcare, with federal and state government funding support along with industry initiatives.

WWI starts CSL manufacturing legacy

The ability to manufacture more medicines, vaccines and medical technologies in Australia is not new.

In 1916, the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories (CSL) was established because the country needed to manufacture vaccines and other biological products locally when overseas supply was disrupted during World War I.

Floated by the Australian Government in 1994, CSL (ASX:CSL) has grown to become a global blood products and vaccine giant and the ASX’s largest healthcare stock. The company also continues to invest heavily in Australian manufacturing.

The CSL Behring division operates the world’s largest plasma fractionation facility at Broadmeadows in Melbourne, capable of processing more than 10 million litres of plasma annually.

Other large-cap ASX healthcare companies, including sleep health leader ResMed (ASX:RMD) and hearing tech company Cochlear (ASX:COH), also have Australian manufacturing operations, while small and mid-caps are following in their footsteps.

IDT expands local manufacturing capabilities

Melbourne-based IDT Australia (ASX:IDT) is a contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) with more than 50 years of pharmaceutical manufacturing experience.

Its 12,000m2 cGMP-compliant facility in Boronia spans active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) through to finished medicines, including tablets, capsules and sterile injectables.

The facility is audited by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), among other international regulators.

In recent years IDT has been expanding into advanced therapies, opening the Ehrlich Bioconjugation Centre in Boronia in 2025.

IDT said it was Australia’s first accredited antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) manufacturing facility and that it was also the first in the country to successfully manufacture an mRNA Covid-19 vaccine candidate.

The company also has capabilities in formulating various mRNA therapies, lipid nanoparticle (LNP) development and sterile fill-and-finish, supporting vaccine and therapeutic programs from preclinical development through to clinical trials.

IDT is further strengthening its capabilities through a $7 million capex program across FY27 and FY28.

This investment includes a new sterile manufacturing line incorporating isolator technology, the global gold standard for Grade A aseptic fill-finish.

The new line will expand IDT’s sterile manufacturing capabilities beyond pre-filled vials to include pre-filled syringes and cartridges, allowing it to manufacture a wider range of medicines at commercial scale.

The expanded sterile manufacturing capabilities will allow IDT to pursue opportunities across ADCs, biologics, biosimilars, mRNA vaccines, speciality injectables and radiopharmaceuticals.

IDT is also upgrading its solid oral dose manufacturing capabilities, including its tablet press, coating, solids handling and complete bottle line.

Optiscan exporting real-time microscopic imaging

Optiscan (ASX:OIL) develops and manufactures its confocal endomicroscopy imaging systems at its global headquarters in Mulgrave, in the heart of the ever-expanding and dynamic Melbourne medtech and biotech hub.

These devices provide real-time microscopic imaging for surgical and pathology applications.

The company’s InSpecta device was officially launched into the US veterinary market at the American Veterinary Medical Association Convention in California in July.

In October OIL lodged 510(k) submissions with the FDA for its InForm digital pathology device and its InVue precision surgery device.

InForm is designed to provide real-time, slide-free microscopic imaging of fresh or fixed tissue within pathology workflows, while InVue gives surgeons cellular-level imaging capabilities during operations.

CEO Dr Camile Farah told Stockhead OIL was committed to manufacturing its products in Australia.

“Australia has a strong track record of medical innovation, but the real opportunity is ensuring we have the manufacturing capability to translate that innovation into globally competitive products,” he said.

“It’s not just about what we can develop in Australia, but what we can build, commercialise and export to the world.

“At Optiscan, our research and development and manufacturing teams work closely together.

“This integrated approach allows us to continually advance our technology while maintaining the specialised manufacturing expertise needed to support our ambitions in international healthcare markets.”

Telix establishes global manufacturing footprint

Back at the big end of ASX healthcare, Telix Pharmaceuticals (ASX:TLX) continues to expand a global manufacturing footprint, including in its home city of Melbourne, to support growing demand for its radiopharmaceutical products and next-generation therapeutic pipeline.

TLX’s manufacturing arm is now a network of 45 manufacturing and distribution facilities across five continents.

Therapeutics manufacturing and supply operations span RLS Radiopharmacies and IsoTherapeutics in the US, alongside isotope production in Canada, production and research facilities in Sacramento, California, Seneffe in Belgium and Yokohama in Japan.

The newest North Melbourne facility opened in July, in partnership with the Melbourne Theranostic Innovation Centre, to accelerate development of targeted radiopharmaceuticals.

Managing director and Group CEO Dr Christian Behrenbruch said the site addressed a local gap.

“Radiopharmaceuticals are fast becoming an important part of cancer care, but manufacturing capacity for novel treatments, which needs to be near patients, remains a constraint in Australia,” he said.

Behrenbruch also framed the facility as a national investment.

“It is also an investment in Australia’s sovereign manufacturing capability and the specialist workforce needed to build a globally competitive radiopharmaceutical industry,” he said.

TLX has spent more than half a billion dollars building its manufacturing network through acquisitions and new facilities since 2020 and recently agreed to acquire German-based ITM in a deal carrying US$1.65bn of upfront consideration.

“This merger positions Telix at the forefront of the consolidation that is occurring as the industry matures,” Behrenbruch said.

“ITM is the leader in radioisotope production, with deep scientific expertise and a track record of value-adding innovation.”

Clever Culture takes Aussie-made APAS to big pharma

Adelaide-based Clever Culture Systems (ASX:CC5) is another example of Australian-developed technology being manufactured locally.

Its flagship APAS Independence automated culture plate reader is the only FDA-cleared AI technology for automated culture plate reading.

APAS Independence is being sold to pharmaceutical manufacturing companies for the reading of environmental monitoring culture plates.

Some of the largest pharmaceutical companies globally are among its customers including AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, CSL and Thermo Fisher’s contract drug manufacturing organisation.

The company announced this week it was expanding its portfolio with the development of a new instrument, APAS Revolution, designed to extend automated environmental monitoring to lower-volume, smaller and medium sterile drug-manufacturing facilities.

“Our APAS technology is a great example of Australian innovation and manufacturing expertise that continues to make sense for us to keep here in Australia,” CEO Brent Barnes told Stockhead.

“The hardware is manufactured in Melbourne in partnership with Planet Innovation, while the development of our proprietary artificial intelligence software and associated technology is undertaken in Adelaide.

“This combination of local engineering, manufacturing and AI expertise demonstrates how Australian companies can develop world-class medical technologies domestically and deliver them to global healthcare markets.”

Taking regenerative products to the world

Regenerative medicine company Orthocell (ASX:OCC) has a manufacturing facility based at its headquarters on the grounds of Murdoch University in Perth.

OCC is focused on advancing tissue repair across nerve, bone and tendon applications. Its flagship product, Remplir, is a resorbable collagen wrap designed to support peripheral nerve repair. Remplir is approved and supplied across seven major markets.

OCC also manufactures Striate+, a collagen barrier membrane used to support guided bone and tissue regeneration in dental implant procedures. Striate+ is approved across nine markets and distributed by BioHorizons, one of the largest global dental implant companies.

“Orthocell is proud to develop and manufacture world-leading regenerative medicine technologies here in Western Australia, ” CEO Paul Anderson told Stockhead.

“Our vertically integrated capabilities, from research and development through to commercial-scale manufacturing, are a key competitive advantage, enabling us to retain our intellectual property, maintain control over product quality and supply growing international markets.

“We see significant opportunities to build on our existing product portfolio and further establish Australia as a leader in regenerative medicine.”

OCC’s strategic partner Marine Biomedical has also been granted FDA 510(k) clearance for PearlBone, a next-generation bone substitute developed using pearl shell from Western Australia’s Kimberley region.

OCC has an equity interest of 12% in Marine Biomedical, which is manufacturing PearlBone at a purpose-built Broome facility.

The views, information or opinions expressed in the interview in this article are solely those of the interviewees and do not represent the views of Stockhead.

Stockhead has not provided, endorsed or otherwise assumed responsibility for any financial product advice contained in this article.

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Optiscan, Clever Culture Systems and Orthocell are Stockhead advertisers, the companies did not sponsor this article.

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