The Centre for Process Innovation Launches Open-Access Biologics Manufacturing Site

As part of the United Kingdom's effort to be a premier research destination in the life-sciences sector, the UK's Department for Business Innovation and Skills has funded the cinstruction of a new research and teaching facility to educate its residents. According to a promotional video released alongside the press release announcing the center's launch, the construction of the location will help companies “understand the technical feasibility of their new biologic process or technology.”

The £38-million center in Darlington, Co. Durham-launched by the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI), an organization that is part of the UK government’s High Value Manufacturing Catapault project-was built to “capitalize on the North East’s expertise in medicines manufacturing” and to “bridge the gap between business and academia,” said Jo Johnson, minister of state for universities and science, in a press release. Johnson, in collaboration with Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies’ CEO Steve Bagshaw, opened the center to help the UK claim a stake in the rapidly growing biologics manufacturing sector. The addition of the new facility will help prepare the UK workforce for the challenges that complex bioprocessing techniques present, according to Bagshaw.

Specifically, the facility will “enable companies to test and trial new ideas cheaply and quickly with minimized risk,” which will help medicines get to the market more quickly, commented Nigel Perry, CEO of CPI. The initiative will bring together industry subject matter experts across the biopharmaceutical supply chain, noted Chris Dowle, who is director of biologics at CPI. He added that a number of projects are already underway to help UK life-sciences companies “prove their technologies in an industrially relevant environment.”