The outbreak of war impedes the international supply of vaccines and other bacteriological products.
The Australian Government has been persuaded to form the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories after a serious epidemic of meningitis occurs in the army camp at Broadmeadows.
As there is very little laboratory access in Melbourne, the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories are housed in the newly developed, but empty, institute laboratories from February 1917 until August 1918.
A partnership of collaboration is established between the two organisations.
Now named CSL Limited, the organisation develops and manufactures vaccines and plasma protein biotherapies in facilities from Germany to Switzerland and the US.
