UCL-led EPSRC centre for macromolecular medicines

Announced yesterday as part of a wider roll-out of eight other EPSRC Centres for Innovative Manufacturing, the facility aims to improve the manufacture of macromolecular medicines, which are more costly to manufacture and use than conventional medicines.

According to UCL, if the manufacturing process and design of the final medicine are poor then costs rise and patient access is restricted due to budget pressures on customers such as the NHS.

To help overcome this, UK companies will be able to use the centre to select drug candidates for clinical trials, both on the basis of clinical efficacy manufacturing feasibility, which is expected to result in reduced costs.

Led by Prof Nigel Titchener-Hooker, the centre — which has received an EPSRC grant of £4.9m, with a further £3.9m provided by industry partners — will deliver proof-of-concept tools, demonstrated against a test set of user-defined products.

The eight other centres — engaged in research in areas including composites, intelligent automation and additive manufacturing — will share £40.1m, plus contributions from industry.