New 拢20 million fund to grow UK life sciences manufacturing opens for applications
Life science companies can now apply to the new 拢20 million fund to expand manufacturing in the UK, Minister Nadhim Zahawi announced today (Wednesday 7 April).
- Applications open for new 拢20 million fund to support the manufacture of medicines, diagnostics and MedTech in the UK
- fund will boost the UK offer in life sciences manufacturing, creating economic opportunities and highly skilled jobs across the country
- supports the government鈥檚 ambitions to build back better, ensuring greater resilience in UK supply chains
Announced last November by the Prime Minister and opening for applications today, the Medicines and Diagnostics Manufacturing Transformation Fund is designed to boost the country鈥檚 ability to respond to future pandemics and put UK companies ahead of global competitors.
With two-thirds of life science manufacturing jobs already outside London and the South East, the new 拢20 million fund will also open up economic and investment opportunities for manufacturers across the whole of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, improving our domestic supply chains and safeguarding and creating hundreds of highly skilled manufacturing jobs.
The UK has one of the strongest鈥痑nd鈥痬ost productive health and life sciences industries鈥痝lobally, with a turnover of 拢80 billion and supporting 256,000 jobs, underpinned by a powerful research landscape and high-quality science base.
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said:
This 拢20 million investment will harness the best in UK manufacturing and fund cutting-edge medical technologies to protect the British public in 2021 and beyond.
This will not only boost the UK鈥檚 already strong vaccine and medicine portfolio but support top quality, local jobs across the country and put the UK in a formidable position to continue responding to the most pressing global challenges of our time.
Life Sciences Minister Nadhim Zahawi said:
Our life sciences sector is world leading and its incredible response to COVID-19 has reminded us of the crucial importance of the sector to the UK.
I am thrilled to see this fund opening for applications and would encourage companies to make the most of the opportunity to expand their operations and create good jobs as we build back better from the pandemic.
The pandemic has shown the importance of having a strong domestic medicines and diagnostics manufacturing industry. This new fund has been established to grow and strengthen the UK鈥檚 capabilities, as well as encouraging companies to deploy new technologies, build new factories and harness new advances, including bioprocessing, data and using greener manufacturing processes.
To date, the UK government has invested over 拢300 million into manufacturing a successful vaccine, and through the work of the Vaccine Taskforce, established in April 2020, facilities across the UK are working at pace to supply the world鈥檚 most promising vaccines so far as part of the biggest vaccination programme in NHS history.
Today鈥檚 announcement forms part of the government鈥檚 plans to bolster secure and resilient onshore UK manufacturing capacity, ensuring universal and equitable access to safe, efficacious and affordable vaccines, medicines and diagnostics for this and future pandemics, taking advantage of our world-leading genomics expertise.