The NSW government has announced a “formal coordination process” to bring large-scale mRNA vaccine manufacturing to the state.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the long-term strategy is about harnessing existing “pockets of excellence” in universities and labs across the state to future-proof vaccine needs.

“In the main, it’ll be industry that’ll come in and back this process.

“This is about building an industry that currently doesn’t exist in NSW.”

Chief Scientist Professor Hugh Durrant-Whyte has advised a pilot program will take between 12 and 24 months to initiate, addressing long-term COVID-19 vaccine production, as well as future immunisation needs.

While vaccine components are being produced in NSW, scale and quality in assembling those components required a coordinated effort.

Premier Berejiklian aims to introduce pharmaceutical manufacturing to NSW at a scale seen nowhere else in the country.

Image: Nine News