CSL continues its focus on R&D

Blood products and pharmaceutical group CSL (ASX: CSL) is continuing its focus on innovation, spending more that $1.21 billion (US$832 million) on research in 2019.

The expenditure, which continues the Melbourne company’s dominance as Australia’s biggest R&D spender, maintains R&D outlays for the company within its target range of 10 to 11 per cent of turnover.

Spending was up from $1.02 billion (US$702 million) the year before as shown in the graph which includes R&D for CSL and vaccine group Seqirus..

With the average spend for manufacturers below two per cent, the manufacturer of blood-derived products and vaccines is a standout.

Delivering a research briefing to investors, head of R&D for CSL Behring, William Mezzanotte outlined the sources and targets for the company’s efforts.

Collaborations with R&D institutions in Melbourne and to a lesser extent Sydney are the bedrock of CSL innovation.

The 4,000 square metre Bio21 Institute in Melbourne is the major new facility in Australia.

They focus on blood fractionation, recombinant technologies, cell and gene therapies and cell and egg based production of influenza vaccines.

The company is the world number two in vaccines.

The majority of expenditure is on new product development (shown in red in the graphic), followed by product continuous product improvement (dark blue) and market development (light blue).

Major new product targets include:

# Haptoglobin for the treatment of Subarachnoid Haemorrhage

# CSL311 for the treatment of inflammatory disease

# And CSL200 for the treatment of Sickle Cell Disease.

Picture: CSL

Subscribe to our free @AuManufacturing newsletter here.