UK invests £50m in “lifesaving” medicine manufacturing facility

THE NHS is set to benefit from an increased supply of oncology and autoimmune disease treatments thanks to the government’s £50m (US$64m) investment into a “lifesaving” manufacturing facility.

The investment has been awarded to cancer treatment supplier Accord to expand production at its site in Fawdon, Newcastle upon Tyne.

Accord already supplies around 10% of all medicines to the NHS, with 75% manufactured within the UK.

Lifesaving treatments

The government says the investment into Accord’s plant will support the company’s capabilities specifically in the event of a future pandemic.

Covid laid bare consistent “underinvestment” in UK healthcare when measured against comparable nations, according to research from the British Medical Association (BMA).

The fresh investment will open new product lines for Accord, including development of a novel cancer drug, two autoimmune injectables, and medicines for adjunctive therapy in cancer.

Peter Kyle, the science and technology secretary, said: “Investments like this will help secure the manufacture of next generation lifesaving medicines and support our resilience to future pandemics.”

Further investment

The government has also committed funding to several growth areas, including £520m for a new Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund and more than £20bn for R&D.

It has also received a £279m investment from American pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly to trial innovative approaches to treating obesity.

Accord says it has invested around £10bn into the UK in the past ten years, and aims to continue its collaboration with the government and potentially expand production at its site in Barnstaple, Devon.