Liverpool 'powerhouse' of drug development industry

Liverpool is shaping up to be a future powerhouse of vaccine and drug development, boosting the economy and saving lives.

A partnership of universities and industry, led by Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), has been awarded close to £5m by Research England’s University Commercialisation Ecosystem fund (opens in a new tab) to grow the regional biologics ecosystem, addressing challenges in the manufacture and commercial scale-up of new medicines.

Biologics are complex medical products derived from living organisms, designed to prevent or treat a diverse range of infections and diseases, including emerging infectious diseases, cancer and antimicrobial resistance.

The UK is renowned for its biologics expertise, accounting for around 25% of the UK’s pharmaceutical markets and valued at £46bn annually. Despite this strength, gaps remain in infrastructure to turn world-class academic discoveries into new medicines as they require sophisticated manufacturing processes and advanced facilities for the development and scale-up into clinical trials and delivery for patients.

Liverpool City Region is uniquely positioned to address these challenges, as the UK’s first Health and Life Sciences Investment Zone. It’s home to world-leading universities conducting sector-leading scientific research, inpatient and outpatient clinical trial infrastructure and over 300 life sciences businesses generating £850m in Gross Value Added (GVA).

BRITE, a partnership between local academic research institutions LSTM, University of Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores University and Edge Hill University, civic partners including the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, and leading industry players including AstraZeneca and Unilever, seeks to plug these gaps, establishing the region as a global leader in biologics innovation and manufacturing.

Liverpool City Region is uniquely positioned to address these challenges, as the UK’s first Health and Life Sciences Investment Zone.

BRITE will help identify and tackle barriers to effective commercialisation to address the shortage of local biomanufacturing facilities and build scale-up capability within the Liverpool City Region, ensuring that biologics assets developed here can be commercialised locally. This collaboration will allow the Liverpool City Region to retain the economic benefit of the research generated by its universities, create high-quality jobs, and ultimately advance health outcomes through innovative therapeutics.

Professor Jonathan Ball, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of LSTM, said: “BRITE reflects LSTM’s deep commitment to translating world-class research into real-world impact — creating high-value jobs, and ensuring that pioneering health solutions are developed, manufactured, and delivered from within our region. We are proud to help drive a collaborative initiative that will accelerate the development and commercialisation of biologics while strengthening the region’s position as a national and international hub for health and life sciences.”

Science Minister Lord Vallance said: “The UK is home to some of the world’s best universities, and we have deep strengths from life sciences to cutting-edge fields like quantum and engineering biology. But we can and must do more to unlock scientific research’s vast economic potential, and to help our innovators world-leading public sector labs turn brilliant ideas into businesses that attract investment and sustain jobs.

BRITE is a partnership led by LSTM, and including University of Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores University and Edge Hill University.

Other key partners involved in BRITE are AstraZeneca, Unilever, Univercells, STFC Hartree Centre, Pharmaron, TriRx, The Pandemic Institute (TPI), Croda, Health Innovation North West Coast (HINWC), Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCR CA), iiCON, LYVA Labs, and Seqirus.