CPI Breaks Ground On New Biologics Manufacturing Center

The Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) announced that it has officially broken ground on the state of the art National Biologics Manufacturing Centre (NBMC) at its new Central Park, Darlington site.

The new Centre is part of the UK government’s ‘Strategy for UK Life Sciences’ launched in 2011, which aims to strengthen the UK’s life-science sector. CPI was chosen to establish and manage the £38 million centre due to be completed in 2015.

Director of Biologics at CPI, Chris Dowle, said, “We are delighted to herald this groundbreaking to progress the journey to the new centre as we work with industry and academia to deliver new innovation to enhance the competiveness of the UK biologics economy.”

National Biologics Manufacturing Centre will help enable the biopharmaceutical industry to produce more therapies that will address unmet clinical needs. CPI’s team of scientists, engineers, and sector specialists will help companies in the process of development, testing, prototyping, and scaling up of innovations that could prove beneficial to biologics manufacture and provision.

Bill Dixon, Leader of Darlington Borough Council and Deputy Chairman of Tees Valley Unlimited said, “This is a fantastic indication of how far Central Park has come – it sends out a clear message that people want to invest in Darlington. We beat off tough competition to secure this national centre for excellence and it will provide the foundations for a biomedical and pharmaceutical industry to prosper in Darlington. The kinds of jobs it will create are highly skilled and knowledge-based which is great news for young people who want to stay in the area and secure a skilled job.”

Biologics are medicinal products manufactured using biological processes instead of chemical systems. These medicines are generated from living systems which have been chosen based on their ability to produce the desired molecule in economic quantities. Use of biologics in therapeutics has steadily increased over the past decade. Some of the best selling drugs are biologics used to treat certain forms of cancer, autoimmune diseases, and other illnesses caused by a shortage of signaling proteins.