Medicines manufacturing contributes £16 billion annually in GVA to the UK economy by providing high-value, well-distributed jobs across the country. Between April 2023 and March 2024, the sector exported £25.5 billion worth of goods, making it the third-largest UK export sector. With a targeted strategy, it has the potential to attract an additional £15 billion in investment over the next decade, creating 26,500 new jobs while also promoting sustainability through the shift to net-zero medicines manufacturing.
The BIA jointly established the Medicines Manufacturing Industry Partnership (MMIP) with the Government and the biopharmaceutical industry partners in 2014 to ensure that the UK is recognised by the global medicines industry as a world-class advanced centre for medicines manufacturing.
The BIA has numerous members involved in medicine manufacturing or in the process of starting production. We collaborate with these companies to support the ongoing growth of the sector.
Recent activity in medicines manufacturing
Manufacturing Advisory Committee (MAC)
The BIA Manufacturing Advisory Committee (MAC) supports the UK commercial biomanufacturing community by providing an experienced network for members to address issues relevant to the biologics, vaccine, cell and gene therapy sectors, to cross-pollinate expertise and share best practice. MAC actively works on sector wide issues such as sustainability and addressing skill shortages. Its sustainability working group is dedicated to sharing best practices from individual companies across the industry to ensure that valuable lessons are disseminated.
The BIA Manufacturing Community aims to engage BIA members with an active interest in biomanufacturing (companies already on MAC and companies who are not part of MAC). Members of this community will receive email updates and will be invited to participate in working groups and events. They will also be in line to join MAC or other interest groups as the manufacturing community develops.
MAC Chair and Vice-Chairs
Kit Erlebach
Kit is responsible for Engineering and EHS at FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies in the UK. Kit has also worked as a Biochemical Engineer for 20 years and holds a Lean Six Sigma leader Master Black Belt qualification. He has applied LSS to quality, engineering and manufacturing in the course of leading laboratory construction projects totalling more than £100M. Kit has a first degree from Nottingham University in Chemical Engineering and a PhD from Cambridge University in Chemical Engineering and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chemical Engineers. He an MBA from the Open University as part of the ATAC programme.
Sharon Grimster
Sharon is a consultant at Redownes Ltd, having previously held leadership roles at Avacta, VaxEquity, ReNeuron, F-Star, Antisoma and Celltech. During her career she has had responsibility for a range of development functions, including CMC, project management, medical devices, regulatory affairs, preclinical, business operations and quality.
Sharon is the Vice Chair of the Manufacturing Advisory Committee for the BIA, and was the 2019 winner of the Peter Dunnill award.
Will Milligan
Will is the Founder of Extracellular, a CDMO for cultivated meat and seafood. Will has extensive experience in stem cell scale up and earned a PhD from Newcastle University in Biopharmaceutical Process Development. Prior to founding Extracellular, he worked in cell and gene therapy process development at eXmoor Pharma Concepts.
BIA MAC Leadership Programme (MAC LeaP)
The BIA MAC LeaP programme supports the development and training of managers in the biopharmaceutical and cell & gene therapy industries through cross-sector learning and peer networks.
BIA Manufacturing Community
BIA Manufacturing Community aims to engage BIA members with an active interest in biomanufacturing, and companies already on MAC or who are not part of MAC. Members of this community will receive email updates and will be invited to participate in working groups and events. They will also be in line to join MAC or other interest groups as the manufacturing community develops.
Advanced Therapies Apprenticeship Community (ATAC)
ATAC was established to develop apprenticeship programmes designed specifically to train and upskill individuals to develop, manufacture and deliver advanced therapies, vaccines and biologics at scale. The programme currently supports over 230 apprentices from 45 organisations across science, digital, engineering and leadership disciplines addressing critical skills gaps in our sector. MAC supports this programme, coordinated by the CGT Catapult.
Members of BIA MAC
