Ground is Officially Broken on CPI’s £38m National Biologics Manufacturing Centre

The Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) has officially breaken ground on its state of the art National Biologics Manufacturing Centre (NBMC) at its new Central Park, Darlington site.

Due for completion in 2015, the centre is part of the Government’s ‘Strategy for UK Life Sciences’ launched in 2011 to strengthen the UK’s life-science sector. CPI was selected to establish and manage the new £38 million centre, which will encourage innovative solutions in the UK healthcare market.

The purpose of the NBMC is to enable the biopharmaceutical industry to capitalise on its strong research and development pipeline and make more therapies available for unmet clinical needs. CPI supports the commercialisation of research by promoting collaboration with industry across the supply chain from research through to manufacture and clinic.

CPI’s team of scientists, engineers and sector specialists will help companies of all sizes to develop, demonstrate, prototype and scale-up innovations that could be beneficial to biologics manufacture and provision, from initial programme scoping and planning through to process demonstration and scale-up.

Steve Bagshaw, CEO Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies says: “The NBMC is an excellent opportunity to bring industry, academia and the funding agencies together to create the best possible environment for UK Biotechnology to grow.”

Sandy Anderson, OBE, Chair of Tees Valley Unlimited says: “This project is an excellent example of what can be achieved through genuine partnership. The healthcare industry and CPI have worked closely with Darlington Council and TVU, the Local Enterprise Partnership for the Tees Valley, to make this investment in innovate technology possible.”

CPI’s Director of Biologics, Dr Chris Dowle, says: “We are delighted to herald this groundbreaking to progress the journey to the new centre as we work with industry and academia to deliver new innovation to enhance the competiveness of the UK biologics economy.”