Ministerial Statement

Pfizer

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Health Industries) (14:00): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: This morning I was pleased to be at Pfizer's Thebarton facility where the company announced the final phase of its $21 million upgrade which will help secure 100 South Australian jobs at the manufacturing plant. The government is working to diversify the economy and a big part of this is increasing health industries investment in the state.

Pfizer's site upgrade is expected to generate $380 million for the South Australian economy over the next seven years, and it not only secures 100 high-tech manufacturing jobs, but local manufacturing contractors have managed the development and local tradespeople have been contributing to the highly-complex and advanced fit-out.

The South Australian government granted Pfizer a lease on crown land adjoining its current facility after negotiating for the commonwealth tenants to move, and that allowed the upgrade to proceed.

Health Industries South Australia provided negotiation support to Pfizer in dealing with the regulatory obligations during the planning of the development. The upgrade will ensure Pfizer's Adelaide commercial manufacturing of a biosimilar medicine that is used to help cancer patients.

The facility will be completed in the middle of the year allowing for the commercialisation of the medicine to a global market valued at $4.6 billion.

Pfizer's Adelaide team is embarking of a new era in pharmaceutical manufacturing, and this investment will establish the Thebarton plant as an innovative site and the largest biologic medicine manufacturer of its type in Australia. It will also further develop the skills and capabilities of 100 South Australian workers.

The government is targeting more health industry investment with the building of the $3.6 billion Adelaide BioMed City, the largest health and life sciences cluster in the Southern Hemisphere, bringing together institutions from research, development and clinical care through to business development.