Partnership looks to boost medicines manufacturing in the UK

A new Medicines Manufacturing Industry Partnership (MMIP) has been established with the aim of ensuring UK competitiveness in medicines manufacturing.

Jointly established by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) and the BioIndustry Association (BIA), the partnership includes organisations such as Actavis, AstraZeneca, Eisai, FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies, GlaxoSmithKline, the Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN), Oxford BioMedica and Pfizer.

As an immediate first step, the MMIP is jointly resourcing a team with the KTN to help the sector become more effective in navigating and drawing on public investments and funding mechanisms which are already in place to drive UK competitiveness in medicines manufacturing.

'The UK life sciences sector benefits from a supportive government and competitive fiscal environment, yet we believe more can be done to maximise these advantages, specifically in medicines manufacturing,' said BIA Chief Executive Steve Bates.

'Accordingly, the MMIP will look to clarify current fiscal incentives to ensure wider uptake from the sector.'

The MMIP Steering Group will be led by Ian McCubbin, GlaxoSmithKline Senior Vice President for the North America, Japan and Global Pharma Supply Chain. Initial work will focus on industry needs across a number of priority areas including the technology, fiscal, regulatory and skills environments, as well as the promotion overseas of the UK’s strengths in medicines manufacturing.

The MMIP will look to clarify current fiscal incentives to ensure wider uptake from the sector

'The UK has a strong foundation in manufacturing and it is vital that this partnership works to differentiate, defend and grow the existing industry base, so that we continue to be a major export earner and create opportunities to cement the UK’s position as a world leading centre for medicines manufacturing,' said McCubbin.

Sue Dunkerton, KTN Director for Health and Biotechnology, added the initiative builds on the organisation's recent activities in developing roadmaps for Innovate UK in the areas of pharma, biopharma and medtech.

'At the KTN we want to bring those with innovation challenges together with the businesses and researchers who have the talent and technology to develop viable solutions – being part of the MMIP will enable us to do that in support of the medicines manufacturing sector.'

Commenting on the partnership, recently appointed Minister for Life Sciences George Freeman said exports of UK-manufactured medicines are now worth over £22bn annually.

According to the BioIndustry Association, UK data shows the Gross Value Add (GVA) per employee for pharmaceutical manufacture was £149,000 in 2012 – significantly higher than any other manufacturing sector.