£5m project aims to make Liverpool global leader in biologics

A new project led by Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) will enable the seamless translation of innovative vaccine and drug research into new medicines that will prevent disease, save lives and boost the regional economy.

BRITE, a cross-sector partnership which includes universities and industry, has been awarded close to £5m by Research England’s University Commercialisation Ecosystem fund to develop essential capacity to grow the regional and national biologics ecosystem, addressing challenges in their manufacture and commercial scale-up.

Biologics are complex medical products derived from living organisms, designed to prevent or treat a diverse range of infections and diseases, including emerging infectious diseases, cancer and antimicrobial resistance. 

The UK is renowned for its biologics expertise, accounting for around 25% of the UK’s pharmaceutical markets and valued at £46bn annually. Despite this strength, gaps remain in infrastructure to turn world-class academic discoveries into new medicines, as they require sophisticated manufacturing processes and advanced facilities for the development and scale-up into clinical trials and delivery for patients.

Liverpool City Region is uniquely positioned to address these challenges, as the UK’s first Health and Life Sciences Investment Zone. It’s home to world-leading universities conducting sector-leading scientific research, inpatient and outpatient clinical trial infrastructure and over 300 life sciences businesses generating £850m in Gross Value Added (GVA).

BRITE will help identify and tackle barriers to effective commercialisation to address the shortage of local biomanufacturing facilities and build scale-up capability within the Liverpool City Region, ensuring that biologics assets developed here can be commercialised locally. This collaboration will allow the Liverpool City Region to retain the economic benefit of the research generated by its universities, create high-quality jobs, and ultimately advance health outcomes through innovative therapeutics.

Other key partners involved in BRITE are Astra Zeneca, Unilever, Univercells, STFC Hartree Centre, Pharmaron, TriRX, The Pandemic Institute (TPI), Croda, Health Innovation North West Coast (HINWC), Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCR CA), iiCON, LyvaLabs, TriRX and Seqirus.