CEO Update | 27 September 2021
Investments and expansions in UK manufacturing
Fantastic news last week as several investment and expansion announcements were made within the UK manufacturing community.
Autolus confirmed that they have received planning approval to develop a new 70,000 square foot facility in Stevenage. It’s great to see the continued expansion in the Stevenage area, a key cluster in the UK ecosystem. Further details of Autolus’ new facility can be found here.
More good news came out of Stevenage when Quell Therapeutics announced that they have entered a collaboration with the Cell and Gene Therapy (CGT) Catapult. This will expand Quell’s clinical manufacturing capabilities and capacity in one of the recently opened specialist large-scale manufacturing modules at CGT Catapult’s manufacturing innovation centre. More details can be found here.
Serum Life Sciences, a subsidiary of the Serum Institute of India announced a £50m investment in Oxford Biomedica. The investment will develop a fallow area of the companies Oxford site into a flexible manufacturing area, alongside the validation of several independent cGMP suites. For further details please follow this link.
In Scotland, Symbiosis announced that they have completed a successful MHRA inspection of their new storage and warehouse capability in Stirling.
AstraZeneca deal with Vaxequity
It’s great to see that AstraZeneca have signed a deal with Vaxequity, a spin out from Imperial College London, to create RNA therapeutics. This deal gives AstraZeneca the option to collaborate with VaxEquity on 26 drug targets, further details of the deal can be found here.
Government launches new AI strategy
The Government announced a new Artificial Intelligence strategy as part of tech week. Artificial intelligence is fast becoming a key component for biotech and life sciences companies, and it was interesting to note that the work of Deepmind was included in the Government press release. To read the strategy please follow this link.
Dr John Brown, CBE to retire as Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult’s Chairman
The Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult have announced that Dr John Brown - its Chairman for three successive terms and former BIA board member - will be retiring. Under John’s tenure the Catapult has gone from strength to strength, establishing itself as a key player in the cell and gene therapy area and most recently creating a new facility in Braintree.
