EpidemicsNew vaccines center to protect U.K. from pandemic threats

Published 12 December 2018

The U.K.’s first dedicated Vaccines Manufacturing Innovation Centre (VMIC represents a major commercial opportunity and also a new front line in the nation’s defense against global pandemic threats. To be up and running by 2022, the VMIC addresses the U.K.’s structural gap in late-stage vaccine manufacturing process development. It will allow development and manufacture of vaccines for clinical trials and at moderate scale for emergency preparedness for epidemic threats to the U.K. population.

The U.K.’s first dedicated Vaccines Manufacturing Innovation Centre (VMIC), announced by Business Secretary Greg Clark MP, represents a major commercial opportunity and also a new front line in the nation’s defense against global pandemic threats.

To be up and running by 2022, the VMIC addresses the U.K.’s structural gap in late-stage vaccine manufacturing process development. It will allow development and manufacture of vaccines for clinical trials and at moderate scale for emergency preparedness for epidemic threats to the U.K. population.

Led by the University of Oxford’s Jenner Institute, the new center has been awarded funding by U.K. Research and Innovation of £66 million through the U.K. Government’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) Medicines Manufacturing challenge.

Jenner Institute Director, Professor Adrian Hill, said: “This is an exceptional opportunity for the U.K. to lead in the provision of vaccines against a wide range of outbreak pathogens which threaten to cause major epidemics. The lack of commercial incentive to develop these has now led to this exceptional partnership of major academic and industrial players in the vaccine field, to accelerate a range of vaccines towards large-scale manufacture and stockpile provision for vulnerable populations. In parallel, the Centre will develop innovative manufacturing technologies with U.K. companies and Universities to support the next generation of life-saving preventive and therapeutic vaccines.”

Located on a new site at The Oxford Science Park, the VMIC will have the potential for additional commercial capability, such as for emergency preparedness, for larger scale manufacturing of vaccines to be funded by industry and the Department of Health and Social Care.

U.K. Research and Innovation Chief Executive Professor Sir Mark Walport said: ‘Improving the development, production and application of new vaccines against infectious diseases requires expertise and collaboration across academia and industry.

“The Vaccines Manufacturing Centre will play an important role in bringing expertise from industry and academia together to ensure we are prepared to respond to the threats of serious infections, including viruses with the potential to cause major national or global epidemics.”