More than £74 million of government and industry backing has been announced for the UK's life science's innovators.
The government is awarding more than £54 million across 8 innovative R&D projects through the Sustainable Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Programme. This will be boosted by more than £20 million in additional backing from industry.
The funding will work to make medicines more environmentally friendly and efficient, for example, looking at how anaesthetic gas could be recycled and reused, how spent fuel from Britain’s nuclear power stations could be converted into the next generation of cancer therapies, as well as efforts to make medicines production less wasteful by putting AI and robotics to work in British factories.
Meanwhile, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is being awarded almost £1 million from the Engineering Biology Sandbox Fund for work to address regulatory challenges around ‘engineered bacteriophage products’. Bacteriophages are a type of virus that destroy bacteria. Engineered bacteriophage products could provide an answer to the growing problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Science and technology secretary Liz Kendall said: "The life sciences sector is a core part of our Industrial Strategy for good reason: it turns over £150 billion a year, supports hundreds of thousands of jobs, and is a magnet for investment. Its success will be critical to the economic growth we need, to deliver this government’s mission of national renewal.
"Life sciences are also fundamental to our health and wellbeing. It is only thanks to the brilliance of doctors and scientists that so many diseases of the past can now be treated, prevented and cured. We are backing Britain’s life sciences innovators to keep pushing forward, to find new and better ways to improve and save lives."
Health and innovation minister Dr Zubir Ahmed said: "From innovative cancer treatments to arming our clinicians in the fight against antimicrobial resistance, this government is backing Britain as a life sciences and medical technology powerhouse.
"The NHS has been a pioneer since its creation, and it falls to our generation to continue this by harnessing technological and scientific advances.
"I am confident that if we combine the ingenuity of our leading scientists with the might of our NHS, we can deliver a health service which is once again there for its patients and the envy of the world."
