Some of the UK’s leading academics and industry professionals welcomed Rachel Reeves’ recent announcement of £520 million to develop the UK’s medicine manufacturing capabilities, but say creating a trained workforce must be a priority.
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“This announcement in the Budget to support life sciences is a welcome step for the UK medicines manufacturing sector,” says Professor Ivan Wall – co-director of Resilience, the UK’s first Medicines Manufacturing Skills Centre of Excellence. “However, there is an acute skills shortage that must be addressed to ensure we have trained staff ready to work in the sector.”
Resilience was set up recently to address the acute skills shortage faced by the medicines manufacturing industry in the UK. It is a £4.5 million, two-year project funded by the Office for Life Sciences, part of the UK Government’s Department for Science, Innovation & Technology, and managed through Innovate UK.
The first wave of investments from the Budget will increase manufacturing capacity to ensure the UK can respond to future healthcare emergencies and adapt to the manufacturing demands of new treatment types. This will increase the country’s physical capacity to make medicines.
Resilience will create and deliver new training courses for industry, the NHS and education providers, addressing key sector priorities, including digital technology, artificial intelligence, data analysis and environmental sustainability.
Check out EPM’s full chat with Professor Ivan Wall about the Resilience project here.