Four life sciences companies will see £277 million in joint government and industry backing to help grow and advance their manufacturing projects - another tactic in the Chancellor's growth scheme to grow and harness life sciences innovation.
Key highlights:
- Four life sciences companies from across the UK will benefit from the first tranche of Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund (LSIMF) grants.
- £277 million will help fund and advance life sciences manufacturing projects in both medical diagnostics and human medicines.
- This investment builds on the pilot MDMT fund which successfully delivered £75 million joint public and private investment into the life sciences sector.
Not long after the UK chancellor announced the new Spring Budget and ambitions for the UK to become a "life sciences superpower", science minister, George Freeman, has announced the winning companies that will benefit from the first tranche of the Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund (LSIMF) grants. This fund is to support businesses investing in life sciences manufacturing projects in the UK.
This announcement comes ahead of the ‘Treasury Connect’ conference - where the chancellor will bring together experts in the life sciences sector to discuss ways to harness innovation and help grow the UK economy - and is the third in a series of five Treasury Connect events that are focusing growth across five industries: technology; creative industries; life sciences; advanced manufacturing; and the green economy.
Support from both sides
£17 million in government funding will be supported by additional private investment of £260 million, to back companies investing in life science manufacturing projects that aim to boost health resilience, deploy innovation, minimise environmental impacts and support levelling up.
The funding will help grow an innovative economy across the UK, supporting more than 500 jobs at companies across the UK, from North Wales to Northern Ireland.
Minister of state for science, research & innovation, George Freeman, said: "The UK’s £94 billion Life Science sector provides over 250,000 high skill jobs across the UK from drug discovery to diagnostics, medtech devices and digital health.
"The industry is being transformed by the pace of change: from AI to genomics, bio-manufacturing to smart stents and personalised immunotherapies, technologies are converging to create a new era of advanced digital products.
That requires new types of advances manufacturing plant which is why we set up the Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund, which today’s news shows is working: converting £17 million grants to four companies into £260 million industrial investment."
Building a foundation for the future
LSIMF follows on from the Medicines and Diagnostics Manufacturing Transformation Fund (MDMTF) pilot programme. Since its launch in April 2021, MDMTG has delivered £75 million in joint government and industry investment, while also creating 224 news jobs and safeguarding 345 existing roles.
Collectively, LSIMF and MDMTF have delivered an investment value of £352 million - from the government and industry - into the life sciences sector and supported over 1000 jobs.
The additional £10 million investment to accelerate the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) pathways announced at Spring Budget has laid the foundations for further investments into the UK's life science and healthcare industries. As such, it will allow the MHRA to introduce smoother approvals systems from 2024, accelerating patient access to treatments that already approved by trusted international partners, and ground-breaking technologies such as cancer vaccines and AI therapeutics for mental health.
The government’s Life Sciences Vision, published in 2021, set the ambition to create a globally competitive environment for life science manufacturing investments, building on the strengths of the UK's manufacturing R&D, network of innovation centres, the manufacturing response to Covid-19 and delivery of the Medicines and Diagnostics Manufacturing Transformation Fund.
Life sciences are also central to the UK Science and Technology Framework, published earlier this month, which identifies the critical technologies set to make the biggest difference to health and life science progress, as well as plans to improve the regulatory landscape for life sciences.
The awarded companies
Each of the four UK companies set to benefit from the LSIMF investment are:
- Ipsen - £75 million investment to grow the manufacture of innovative medicines for neurological conditions. Creating 39 new jobs and safeguarding a further 37 at their Wrexham facility.
- Pharmaron - £151 million investment in capital and people will substantially grow operations in Liverpool, increasing production capacity four-fold for critical gene therapy and vaccine components. Creating new 174 jobs, and safeguarding an additional 156.
- Touchlight - £14 million investment boosting UK health resilience by establishing the commercial scale manufacture of DNA at their Hampton, London base. Creating 17 new jobs, and safeguarding 6.
- Randox - £36 million investment to modernise the manufacture of antibodies used across diagnostic tests. A new facility in Crumlin, Northern Ireland will create 90 new jobs.
Chancellor of the exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, said: "The UK is home to Europe’s largest life science sector - it’s a real British success story which includes the first Covid vaccine that saved millions of lives.
We want to cement Britain’s competitive advantage by backing more innovative projects to develop, manufacture and export those treatments of the future."
Minister of state for health, Will Quince, said: "We’re harnessing the same spirit of innovation that delivered the Covid vaccine, and working hand in hand with industry and healthcare experts to get cutting-edge medicines to patients faster. This is an important step towards strengthening the UK’s long term manufacturing capability, while supporting the development of innovative technologies and ground breaking medicines.
"The life sciences sector is crucial to the UK’s health resilience. Through government and industry investment, we will continue to drive it forward - creating jobs and cementing our position as a global life sciences superpower."