The Prime Minister will launch the Government’s 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 our domestic medicine supply chains and
creating thousands of highly skilled jobs in the
process.
This will put UK companies ahead of global competitors
in advanced medicines manufacturing, while helping them
respond to future healthcare needs – and increasing the
overall health resilience of the UK.
Prime Minister
said:
This new £20m 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.
Business Secretary 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.
The pandemic has shown the importance of having a
strong domestic medicines and diagnostics manufacturing
industry. This new fund has been established to grow
and strengthen the UK’s capabilities, by encouraging
companies to develop new technologies, build new
factories and harness new advances, including
bioprocessing, data and using greener manufacturing
processes.
With two-thirds of life science manufacturing jobs
already 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.
This multi-year fund will have an initial pot of £20
million, which will be available from next year, as
part of the government’s 2021/2022 Spending Review
announced by the Chancellor on 25 November.
Eligible manufacturing companies can bid for the fund
to help with their capital costs.
More information will be made available over the coming
months, ahead of the fund launching mid-next year. The
fund will be run through a competitive process overseen
by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial
Strategy.
