Leading-edge healthcare challenge

The leading-edge healthcare challenge, with a funding investment of £181 million in total, focuses on accelerating the development and manufacture of new medicines and treatments. The challenge includes two research programmes:

Medicines Manufacturing
Digital Health Technology Catalyst.

Medicines Manufacturing programme

This programme includes four major infrastructure projects:

the UK’s first national Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre, which will focus on small molecule and pharmaceutical manufacturing, speeding the development of next-generation medicines, and increasing technology opportunities within the medicines supply chain
the Vaccines Manufacturing and Innovation Centre, which will focus on manufacturing processes, training and expertise, as well as emergency response capability for the UK government
three Advanced Therapy Treatment Centres using new cell and gene therapies to develop advanced therapy medicinal products for patients
the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult manufacturing centre, which provides facilities and expertise to encourage the development and commercial production of cell and gene therapy products, working with businesses and researchers.

UK businesses can get funding through Medicines Manufacturing collaborative research and development funding competitions. These support research and innovation projects that improve manufacturing, scale up production and lower costs.

Additionally, the programme includes a £25 million fund for collaborative research and development in medicines manufacturing, which was set up in 2017 to run for four years. Aims included:

improving commercial viability
developing methods for scale-up
increasing the process yield
lowering the cost of production.

Digital Health Technology Catalyst

This £35 million fund was set up in 2017 and will run for four years.

It aims to address challenges in the development of digital health innovations and to grow the digital health sector.

Project case study: Biotech startup launches app to help people with type 1 diabetes dose insulin (Cambridge Network)

Project case study: Patients with COPD offered new tools to manage condition at home (NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde)

Last updated: 3 May 2022