Medicine Manufacturing Facility to Open in Scotland : Renfrewshire, Scotland, is to become the home of a new £56 million medicines manufacturing innovation facility, which will help strengthen innovation in the UK pharmaceutical industry. The Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre (MMIC) will be led by the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) in partnership with the University of Strathclyde, the Medicines Manufacturing Industry Partnership (MMIP), and founding industry partners, AstraZeneca and GSK.

“The Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre will enhance the UK’s existing competitive advantage by deepening the skills base and strengthening the rationale for companies to invest in new, highly productive medicines manufacturing,” said Nigel Perry MBE FREng, chief executive officer at CPI.

Due to the new centre, UK could become a technology and innovation leader in small molecule pharmaceutical and fine chemical manufacturing. Using collaborative innovation and new facilities, the centre will be employed to develop efficient and effective technologies, while also being used by industry academia, healthcare providers and regulators.

Those in the medicines manufacturing community in the UK will be supported through in-house industrial and academic experts, thought leadership and a support structure to help small and medium sized enterprises and start-ups innovate and grow.

Anticipated to take three years and set to start in the summer of this year, the project would create up to 80 high value jobs by 2023 and attract £80.5 million of R&D investment by 2028. A further 90 jobs will be created or retained during design and construction. Indirect employment will be generated through start-ups, SMEs and large companies that will grow their businesses using the transformative manufacturing technologies developed within the MMIC.

The new manufacturing centre is funded by several sources, including UK Research and Innovation (£13 million through the UK Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund), Scottish Enterprise (£15 million) and founding industry partners GlaxoSmithKline (up to £7 million) and AstraZeneca (up to £7 million). The remaining funds will come from revenue to be attracted from funding bids and commercial projects.

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