A new package of projects, studentships and training aims to develop research to underpin the production and processing of new types of medicines based on biological molecules.
By supporting scientists at all stages of their careers - from PhD student to professor - this approach will help ensure that current and future challenges can be met in the industrial production of biological medicines.
The UK currently has the second highest number of these medicines, called biopharmaceuticals, in development worldwide.
This package will provide the foundations for the UK pharmaceutical sector to strengthen its position to the benefit of society and the economy.
GBP4M is being provided for the package by the Bioprocessing Research Industry Club (BRIC), a Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)-led public-private partnership with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and a consortium of 16 industrial partners, ranging from small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), such as Lonza and Eden Biodesign, to major pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer and Glaxosmithkline.
Together, through BRIC, these partners support current research and the training and development of the next generation of bioprocessing researchers.
The BRIC funding will go to six research projects, eight PhD studentships and a skills-development school for early-stage researchers.
The research projects will address current challenges in bioprocessing while the PhD studentships and skills development school will ensure that the next generation of researchers are equipped with the technical knowledge and personal skills to secure future UK success in producing biopharmaceuticals.
Each PhD student will spend six months or a year on placement with a partner company, where they will develop an understanding the challenges of producing biological medicines on a commercial scale.
Biopharmaceuticals, examples of which include vaccines, monoclonal antibodies, hormones and peptide therapeutics, make up over a third of the medicines currently under development and the number of licensed biological medicines is expected to grow by 20 per cent a year.
Biopharmaceuticals are made up of relatively large and complex molecules, which mimic the structure of compounds found naturally within the body.
This means that they are more potent and have fewer side effects than more traditional types of medicine.
They also have the potential to treat diseases and conditions that small-molecule medicines, such as Aspirin, are unable to tackle.
Although biopharmaceuticals have many advantages, they require sophisticated manufacturing methods and are slow, expensive and complicated to produce.
Research funded through the BRIC programme aims to develop solutions to bottlenecks in production so that these new treatments can become available to patients quickly and affordably.
Two of the projects funded by this round of BRIC will address problems with the process of aggregation where biopharmaceuticals clump together during production.
Controlling this process in an industrial setting is vital in order to produce commercially viable amounts of the medicines.
