Adelaide-based company BresaGen has received $8.9 million from the South Australian government to build a new research facility at the Thebarton Biotechnology Precinct.

James Anderson, BresaGen's business development manager, said the company had outgrown its current facility.

"We are struggling to expand the company's manufacturing capacity, as well as with upgrading the facilities to meet high-level US standard regulations," he said.

The new facility, to be completed by 2003, will accommodate up to 100 researchers. Currently it employs 60 in Adelaide and another 20 at the company's US base in Athens, Georgia.

BresaGen's president and chief executive, Dr John Smeaton, said the new capacity was needed for as the company steered its lead anti-cancer drug, E21R, and several new projects through its product pipeline." "We have recently seen significant growth in our process development service business with recent projects undertaken for Bionomics, Metabolic Pharmaceuticals and the Howard Florey Medical Research Institute, Smeaton said. "We expect this part of our business to expand significantly with the capabilities and capacity provided by the new facility."

Smeaton said BresaGen would upgrade the facility to US Food and Drug Administration Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards, enabling it to expand into US markets. Upgrading the manufacturing facility makes the business more attractive to overseas companies, the company said. BresaGen believes it can develop processes for manufacturing commercial quantities of pharmaceutical proteins that will be cheaper than other manufacturers'.

South Australia's Industry, Investment and Trade Minister, Kevin Foley, said BresaGen's location in the precinct should strengthen collaborations with other Adelaide biotechs.