Northwest Best for Biotech

The new Breast Cancer Research unit at Manchester Cancer Research Centre (MCRC) is the latest in a long line of biomedical innovations in the region.

The MCRC itself is an internationally significant cancer research centre, officially launched in 2006. It integrates the cancer research efforts of The University of Manchester, the Christie Hospital, The Paterson Institute for Cancer Research and Cancer Research UK.

The centre has over 200 postdoctoral scientists, clinical fellows, scientific officers, administrative and technical staff, postgraduate research students and visiting fellows, making Manchester one of the largest cancer research and treatment centres in Europe.

The centre is a unique partnership, which plans to double research activity in the city over the next few years. Its outstanding facilities enable doctors and scientists to work closely together, allowing scientific advances to be turned into benefits for people with cancer faster. It aims to be one of the world's leading cancer research institutes by 2015.

Establishing the MCRC in Manchester is tacit acknowledgment of the region's strengths in the biomedical sector. With over 50 years of biotech history behind it, the Northwest is now one the UK's top three biomedical clusters.

Some 200 biomedical companies are based here, covering biotech, pharmaceuticals and healthcare companies. These include seven multinational pharmaceutical companies, employing 25,000 people.

The Northwest is the largest regional exporter of pharmaceuticals in the UK, at £3.4 billion. It is home to AstraZeneca's largest R&D facility; the UK's largest university - Manchester - where 50% of the research is dedicated to life sciences and medicine; Europe's single largest in-market biomanufacuring community; Europe's first dedicated campus based bioincubator, MerseyBio; UK Biobank, the country's largest ever public health initiative, and, since November last year, a new National Biomanufacturing Centre.

The National Biomanufacturing Centre (NBC) in Speke, Liverpool, has already attracted many small biotech companies and start-ups. The world-class centre is set to become Europe's leading biopharmaceutical design centre and a central business location. Its state-of-the-art facilities are designed to tackle many biomedical products, from moleculs to whole cells, mammalian, microbial or viral.

The £34m operation aims is to establish the Northwest as a key contributor to the UK's bioprocessing community and one of the foremost biomanufacturing regions in Europe. Around 2,000 people are already employed within a two-mile radius of the NBC in multinational companies such as Lilly, Novartis and Medimmune, the highest concentration in the UK.

Through a £2.7m Access Fund managed by the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA), companies can apply for grants of up to £68,000 to use the NBC's facilities.

Further examples of the region's specialist expertise include the North West Genetics Knowledge Park (NOWGEN) which works in four key areas: genetics & healthcare, gnetics & society, gnetics & knowledge and genetics & enterprise; and the 400-acre Alderley Park in Cheshire, AstraZeneca's global R&D facility, where world-class scientists explore the frontiers of medicine.