UK announces £20 million investment into medicine manufacturing

The UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced a £20 million investment package into medicine manufacturing in the country. According to Johnson, the new fund will improve medicine supply chains and create thousands of jobs.

The government says that the new funding will strengthen the UK’s ability to respond to future pandemics. Johnson will launch the new capital investment fund, the Medicines and Diagnostic Manufacturing Transformation Fund, while visiting North Wales later today.

This will open-up investment opportunities for medicines manufacturers in England, Scotland and Wales – improving domestic medicine supply chains and creating thousands of highly skilled jobs in the process, Johnson said. The fund has been established to grow and strengthen the UK’s capabilities, by encouraging companies to develop novel technologies, build new factories and harness new advances, including bioprocessing, data and using greener manufacturing processes.

“This new £20 million fund will significantly increase the capacity and resilience of our medicines and diagnostics manufacturing supply chains and equip us to fight future health crises. Throughout the pandemic we have seen a coming together of British scientific industry and innovation and this new fund will enhance the UK’s manufacturing capabilities even further,” Johnson said. 

Business Secretary Alok Sharma said: “The positive and timely response of our medicines manufacturers to the pandemic has been remarkable, but we want to ensure that the UK’s supply chains are even more resilient in the future. There are huge opportunities for innovation in medicines and diagnostics and this new fund will put the UK head and shoulders above others, boosting the UK’s capabilities and generating significant economic opportunities across the country.”

With two-thirds of life science manufacturing jobs outside London and the South East, the fund will also open-up economic opportunities in different parts of the UK, creating thousands of new, highly skilled manufacturing jobs while safeguarding existing jobs, the government said in a statement. 

The government says that eligible manufacturing companies can bid for the fund to help with their capital costs.