A £277 million joint government-industry finance package will assist four UK life sciences companies in moving forward with life sciences manufacturing initiatives.
The Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund (LSIMF) has just released its first round of funding. Government financing of £17 million is supported by a private investment of £260 million. Over 500 jobs will be supported at life sciences businesses across the UK as a result of the funding.
Manufacturing of life sciences is progressing
The following three businesses are being helped by the first round of LSIMF grants:
Ipsen- will get £75 million to expand its manufacturing of breakthrough medications for neurological diseases. This will result in the creation of 39 new jobs and the retention of another 37 at its Wrexham location in North Wales.
Pharmaron- will get aided by £151 million of investment in capital and personnel and will thereby significantly expand operations in Liverpool. This will quadruple the capacity for crucial gene therapy and vaccination components. It will create 174 vacancies while also protecting another 156. Its expansion in Liverpool will contribute to the development of a regional cluster of science-rich skills.
Touchlight will receive a £14 million investment to build commercial-scale manufacturing and also address the production bottleneck of innovative therapeutics such as mRNA vaccines as well as gene and cell therapies. It will establish commercial-scale manufacturing of doggy bone DNA in Hampton, London, thereby creating 17 jobs and protecting another six.
The velocity of change is transforming the industry from AI to biomanufacturing and customised immunotherapies; technologies are merging to produce a new era of advanced digital products, stated George Freeman, State Minister for Science, Research, and Innovation.
It necessitates the creation of new sorts of modern manufacturing units, which is why they went ahead and established the LSIMF, said Freeman.
This will come with an additional £10 million already allocated to Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). It will allow the organisation to implement new, faster approval systems beginning in 2024. This would expedite access to technology such as cancer vaccinations and AI medicines for mental health, in addition to currently licenced treatments.
Expanding on previous investments
The Medicines and Diagnostics Manufacturing Transformation Fund- MDMTF is a trial programme that started in April 2021, whose successor happens to be the LSIMF programme. MDMTF provided £75 million in joint public and private funding and also created 224 new vacancies while preserving 345 present ones.
With the increased funding, the two funds have generated £352 million in both public and private investment into the life sciences sector, supporting over 1000 employees.
