ROUND-UP MAY/JUNE 2020
InDepth -52%
Fast facts: Manufacturing Outlook
Manufacturing
output fell to a
record low
-22%
Employment
balance also hit
a record low
6.2%
The sector will regain
some of its 9.4% 2020
GDP loss next year
New vaccine manufacturing
centre signs landmark agreement
The £93 million Vaccines
Manufacturing and Innovation
Centre (VMIC), a not-for-profi t
organisation established to provide the
UK’s fi rst strategic vaccine development
and advanced manufacturing capability
has signed its fi rst industry partnership
agreement with gene and cell therapy
group Oxford Biomedica plc.
The agreement involves the
organisations collaborating to enable
scaled-up manufacture of viral vector
based vaccines, with an immediate focus
on a vaccine for COVID-19 – the fi rst of
which, AZD1222 (developed between the
University of Oxford and AstraZeneca),
is currently undergoing trials.
This partnership marks the fi rst
step for VMIC in delivering the ‘Virtual
VMIC’ programme, a rapid deployment
facility ready to make vaccines at pace
and scale once a viable COVID-19
vaccine has been found, and whilst
the permanent facility is being built
at Harwell Campus in Oxford. Due
to open in mid-2021, the permanent
VMIC facility will have the capability
to produce up to 70 million pandemic
vaccine doses in four to six months.
As part of the agreement, VMIC
will procure specialist manufacturing
equipment to rapidly equip two
new Good Manufacturing Practice
(GMP) manufacturing suites. The
equipment will be housed within
Oxford Biomedica’s new commercial
manufacturing centre, Oxbox, located in
Oxford. Vaccine manufactured here will
form part of the national eff ort to meet
demand for a COVID-19 vaccine.
Oxford Biomedica will provide
training and technical assistance to
VMIC staff as part of a programme of
activity to accelerate the operational
readiness and GMP manufacturing
capabilities for viral vector vaccine
candidates at VMIC’s new factory.
“This collaboration with Oxford
VMIC
Biomedica means that we can increase
the UK’s capacity to manufacture
viral vector vaccines in 2020 as part
of a national eff ort in response to
COVID-19,” said VMIC CEO, Matthew
Deuchars. “This marks a major
milestone for VMIC in setting up
collaborative partnerships with industry.
It is the fi rst agreement outside of
our founding partners under VMIC’s
longer term objective to work with, and
enhance, the vaccine industry in the UK
and abroad.”
“Viral vector COVID-19 vaccine
candidates are showing signifi cant
promise,” added Kate Bingham, chair
of the government’s Vaccine Taskforce,
which was launched in April to develop
a vaccine against the virus. “This new
partnership marks a major milestone
in increasing the UK manufacturing
capacity of viral vector vaccines and will
specifi cally help ensure that we have the
right skills in place to manufacture a
vaccine as soon as one is available.”
Both VMIC and Oxford Biomedica
are original members of the
University of Oxford, Jenner Institute
manufacturing consortium, which is
focussed on scaling-up the manufacture
of AZD1222, which has entered clinical
trials at multiple sites in the UK.
Industry calls for
urgent assistance
Britain’s manufacturers are calling for
a National Recovery Plan, including an
immediate stimulus package, to boost
investment and help save jobs on the
back of a major survey showing that
output in the sector plunged to a
record low as the full impact of the
crisis hit home.
The Make UK/BDO Manufacturing
Outlook Q2 survey shows that output
reached the lowest level in the 30-year
history of the survey. Looking forward,
the survey shows the prospect for the
rest of the year looks little better.
Furthermore, while the furlough
scheme appears to have mitigated the
immediate threat of redundancies,
evidence suggests that without
government intervention to free up
firms to invest again, this has merely
delayed large-scale redundancies.
Given the bleak outlook, Make UK is
calling on government to work with
businesses on a National Recovery Plan.
In the short-term this should begin with
an immediate stimulus package,
including a Business Rates holiday for
manufacturers similar to that granted to
the retail sector earlier this year. Make
UK believes this would be the single
most important measure the Chancellor
could introduce having the quickest
impact for companies of all sizes and
across all sectors.
This should be accompanied by
other immediate measures including a
National Infrastructure Strategy with a
commitment to immediate projects to
help supply chains, a car scrappage
scheme and incentives to invest in
digital technology and skills.
“With COVID-19 causing instability
in global supply chains and uncertainty
surrounding our future trading
relationships, the UK will become more
reliant than ever on its manufacturing
sector,” said Tom Lawton, head of
manufacturing at BDO. “Now is the time
for the government to step up and
show its support.”
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