The Cell Therapy Catapult has received government funding to establish a large scale Cell Therapy Manufacturing Centre in the UK. Currently, UK manufacturing is currently served by mainly small academic centres that are designed to provide material for early stage clinical trials. There is currently no large-scale infrastructure in the UK that would enable the manufacture of cell therapies for late stage, phase III manufacturing and subsequently for in-market supply.

The lack of suitable capacity will be both an obstacle to the development of the industry and is a key gap in the infrastructure that will allow long-term value to be captured for the UK.

The large scale Cell Therapy Manufacturing Centre will ensure the availability of manufacturing capacity in the UK for the supply of phase III clinical trial material and ultimately enable in-market supply. It will be the model for future expansion of the cell therapy manufacturing industry and form the critical mass that will enable the development of the UK industry and make the UK the go to place for manufacturing in Europe.

The design for the Manufacturing Centre is still being developed but is likely to be in the order of 7 500 m² and include Grade B Clean Rooms, manufacturing support and administration space.