National Biomanufacturing Centre (NBC)
The NBC is a government funded initiative, directly developed as part of the Bionow porfolio and owned by NWDA. It is set to become Europe's leading biopharmaceutical design centre, capable of working with biotech SMEs to develop and manufacture a wide variety of novel biopharmaceutical medicines for early phase clinical trials.
"The National Facility will carry out the initial
manufacture of biopharmaceuticals which could then be used in early
trials. It will plug an essential gap that currently exists
to speed up transfer from research to commercial exploitation"
Stephen Byers, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, March
2001
Description
The National Biomanufacturing Centre is a £34
million programme to provide a state of the art biomanufacturing
facility, which opened in Speke, Liverpool, in 2006, and
is run by a commercial operator, Eden Biodesign. The
4100 m2 facility can provide the full range of services
necessary to take a novel biopharmaceutical from proof of concept
through to cGMP manufacture for clinical trials. The NBC
project also includes an Access Fund (just under £3 million) to
assist qualifying Merseyside and UK SMEs to purchase services from
the Centre.
Benefits
The National Biomanufacturing Centre is an innovative vehicle for
the delivery of much needed expertise and manufacturing capability
to early stage biotechnology companies and product development
programmes. Other outputs include a graduate training
programme. The resulting impact will not only ensure medical
evaluation of innovative products that might not otherwise be
developed but will also encourage the growth of the UK
biomanufacturing industry, supporting pipeline development for
SMEs, contract manufactures and large sponsor companies, thereby
ensuring that we play a leading role in this growth market.
The Operator
Eden Biodesign was announced as the operator of the
NBC by Patricia Hewitt, the current Secretary of State for Trade
and Industry, in March 2003, following a Europe-wide public
procurement process. Eden Biodesign was appointed because of
their extensive expertise in all aspects of biopharmaceutical
manufacturing from process design to manufacturing of licensed
biotech products.
The National Biomanufacturing Centre is publicly funded by the Northwest Regional Development Agency, the European Regional Development Fund and the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (DEBRR).
For more details visit the NBC website.
