UK’s medicines manufacturing skills centre welcomes Budget’s £520 million for manufacturing but says the priority must be skills development
Some of the UK’s leading academics and industry professionals have welcomed last week’s announcement from Rachel Reeves of £520 million to develop the UK’s medicine manufacturing capabilities, but say creating a trained workforce must be a priority.
“This announcement in the Budget to support life sciences is a welcome step for the UK medicines manufacturing sector”, says Professor Ivan Wall – co-director of Resilience, the UK’s first Medicines Manufacturing Skills Centre of Excellence.
“However, there is an acute skills shortage that must be addressed to ensure we have trained staff ready to work in the sector.”
Resilience was set up recently to address the acute skills shortage faced by the medicines manufacturing industry in the UK. It is a £4.5 million, two-year project funded by the Office for Life Sciences, part of the UK Government’s Department for Science, Innovation & Technology, and managed through Innovate UK.
The first wave of investments from the Budget will increase manufacturing capacity to ensure the UK can respond to future healthcare emergencies and adapt to the manufacturing demands of new treatment types.
This will increase the country’s physical capacity to make medicines.
Professor Wall added: “A major consideration for success in building this capability will be in ensuring a strong supply of talent to maximise productivity across new facilities.
“Talent is in short supply across the UK Life Sciences sector and that is where projects like Resilience can help, by building the ecosystem to maintain a strong, internationally competitive sector and ensure patients have access to the best drugs through the NHS.
Resilience will create and deliver new training courses for industry, the NHS and education providers, addressing key sector priorities, including digital technology, artificial intelligence, data analysis and environmental sustainability.
Partner organisations across the UK delivering the programme include the University of Birmingham, University College London (UCL), Teesside University, Heriot-Watt University and Britest Ltd, all of whom have a strong track record of delivering training for industry and supplying new talent for the medicines manufacturing sector.
Resilience is also tasked with helping the NHS achieve its net-zero goal. Professor Wall noted; “There is a great opportunity to design with environmental sustainability principles embedded.
“Around 25% of NHS emissions are in the supply chain, so our approach using VR training will reduce plastics and other waste, helping the industry deliver net zero medicines manufacturing.”
The Life Sciences plan, A Prescription for Growth, outlines the government’s ambition to create a robust talent pipeline that meets the needs of industry, academia, the NHS, and the wider supporting workforce, driving both innovation and growth. In line with this, the government is actively working to develop a talent pool that addresses the specific needs of UK companies and investing to support bespoke skills needs, like Resilience.
The recently published Life sciences competitiveness indicators 2024 noted that pharmaceutical manufacturing’s gross value added (GVA) was £13.7 billion in 2021.
The Resilience partner organisations will deliver in-person and remote training courses in advanced laboratory and medicines manufacturing skills to schools, higher and further education colleges, universities and the NHS.
The Medicines Manufacturing Industry Partnership (MMIP), which represents medicines manufacturers in the UK, noted in 2023 that medicines manufacturing generates the majority of life sciences jobs.
It is a competitive international sector with other countries such as Ireland, Singapore, France and the US, already have well-funded government support in place.
To find out more about Resilience, please visit https://www.resilience-skills.com/.
