MSPS part of consortium to design new UK Cell Therapy Catapult Manufacturing Centre
Large-scale GMP manufacturing centre due to open in 2017 to support growth of UK cell therapy industry
Morgan Sindall Professional Services (MSPS), the multidisciplinary design and engineering firm, is providing mechanical and engineering, civil and structural and CDM services to design the Cell Therapy Catapult’s new £55m large-scale GMP manufacturing centre, due to open in 2017.
MSPS worked with a consortium of companies to complete the RIBA Stage 3 design: 3PM to provide project management; The Fairhursts Design Group as project architects; and Gardiner & Theobald as cost managers.
The new facility will be used by companies for the manufacture of late-phase clinical trial material and initial commercial supply of advanced therapeutic medicinal products including cell and gene therapies. It is being built on the Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst campus, Hertfordshire, and will create up to 150 new jobs and provide consistent and reliable transport of products into the EU within 24 hours.
Mark Adey, director at The Fairhursts Design Group, explained that its brief was to develop a flexible and collaborative working environment that would provide cell therapy researchers with an opportunity to lease high quality cleanroom facilities in the heart of a world-leading innovation campus:. 'It is an incredibly complex scheme made even more challenging by the tight timescales and budgets involved, but we are thrilled to be a part of it and look forward to working with the wider development team to take the project through to completion,' he said.
Simon Steed, associate director, building services of MSPS, said that the consortium team was chosen for its combined expertise in designing a Class B environment facility: 'The design will allow for further growth and business efficiency.'
'The centre will change the scientific landscape for targeted cell technology and we are very proud as a team to be involved,' added Robert Burborough, partner at 3PM.
Keith Thompson, CEO of the Cell Therapy Catapult, said: 'The large-scale GMP manufacturing centre is instrumental in our goal to transform the UK cell and gene therapy industry, advancing research into commercially viable and investible therapies. It will enable companies to operate at the scale needed to support Phase III clinical trials.'