ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúTV

The state-of-the-art National Biomanufacturing Centre in Speke, on which Gleeds has been acting as project and cost managers, officially opens on Wednesday.

The £34m facility, which is the first of its kind in the UK, is designed to support the UK biotechnology industry and will provide the expertise and facilities at all stages of the production of new medicines. It was funded by the North West Regional Development Agency (NWDA) and will be run by Eden Biodesign, a biopharmaceutical development consultancy that works with pharmaceutical companies across the UK.

Gleeds began work on the 4,100 m² facility in 2002 following Government research which showed there was a huge lack of capacity within the UK for the production of small scale, high quality medicines to be used in early clinical trials. The new centre will speed up the process of producing medicines from the research stage through to manufacturing.