£56 million UK innovation centre in Scotland will “revolutionise” medicines manufacturing

Bringing new medicines to market safely and quickly is one of the biggest health challenges we face today. In response, a brand-new £56 million UK innovation centre to be located in Renfrewshire in Scotland is set to “revolutionise” how medicines are manufactured. Process Industry Forum finds out more about this potentially game-changing centre of excellence.

Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre (MMIC) 

A world-first, the new industry-led Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre (MMIC) will offer pharma companies, from start-ups through to multinational organisations, a unique service to develop and adopt novel manufacturing techniques to adapt into their own manufacturing processes. By transforming processes and technologies, the speed of bringing new drugs to market could improve drastically.

With a global market worth £98 billion, this investment will help put the UK and Scotland at the forefront of technology and innovation in small molecule pharmaceutical and fine chemical manufacturing which still makes up the bulk of how new medicines are made. The pharmaceutical sector in Scotland employs 5000 people directly and supports a further 16,500 jobs.

Transformative manufacturing technologies

Supported by Scottish Enterprise (£15 million), UK Research and Innovation, through Innovate UK (£13 million) GSK and AstraZeneca (£7 million each), the MMIC is one of the early projects across the UK to receive funding from the UK’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund. Benefiting companies right across the UK, industry has played a key role in shaping and developing the MMIC to ensure its success.

The new centre will be positioned next to the £65 million National Manufacturing Institute for Scotland (NMIS) and at the heart of an Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District. The MMIC aims to attract over £80 million of R&D investment by 2028 and will create 80 high value jobs directly by 2023.

Up to 90 jobs will also be created or retained in companies involved in the design and build phase and post-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.

Making Scotland the location of choice for life sciences

Scottish Government Minister for Business, Innovation and Energy, Paul Wheelhouse, said: “I am delighted that the Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre (MMIC) will be located in Scotland, given its potential to become a global centre of excellence and bringing significant benefits to Scotland’s economy.

“Scottish Enterprise, on behalf of Scottish Ministers, is investing £15 million in the MMIC helping to fulfil the vision of Scotland’s Life Sciences Strategy. This will help to make Scotland the location of choice for the life sciences community and help us grow the industry’s contribution to the Scottish Economy by 90%, to £8 billion by 2025.

“As well as helping to attract further manufacturing investment to Scotland, the Centre will also be well placed to support new business start-ups and spin-outs and enable established life and chemical science companies to profit from innovation,” he added.

For more information visit www.scottish-enterprise.com.