As part of a £197 m investment in the healthcare and life sciences sector, a £12 m award from the UK Government’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund will significantly increase the current size and capability of the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult (CGT Catapult) large-scale GMP manufacturing centre.
The award, which builds on the current £55 m investment in the project, allows the centre’s capacity to double, offering businesses developing cell therapy products further opportunities to accelerate trials and worldwide commercialisation to bring these rapidly evolving medicines to patients.
The Stevenage-based manufacturing centre is scheduled to open in Autumn 2017 and will provide the UK with the manufacturing facilities needed for large scale cell and gene therapy clinical studies and commercialisation, in line with Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards.
Its innovative business model will allow the development of new manufacturing processes in a collaborative environment. The centre features a series of large cleanroom modules, which can be occupied by businesses conducting trials or commercial manufacture of these therapies at significant scale.
The centre is designed to help de-risk capital investment in product development by reducing the outlay required to bring trials to fruition and to collaborate on the new technologies needed in manufacture and supply from the factory to the bedside.
The award is part of the UK Government’s agenda to invest in best-in-class technology via Innovate UK and the Catapult Programme, which speeds up the manufacture and market availability of innovative therapies while further building the exporting capability of the UK’s biopharmaceutical sector.
A further £30 m investment in new Advanced Therapies Treatment Centres will also see the creation of three hospital-based sites designed to transform the UK’s ability to deliver cell and gene therapies to patients.
Bringing transformative therapies to patients requires the availability of an advanced, robust supply and logistics infrastructure, which CGT Catapult's novel manufacturing centre delivers.