North East England boasts a thriving pharmaceutical sector and is referred to by the UK Government as the ‘jewel in the crown of British Industry’.

The region is home to nearly 200 life science and healthcare companies that generate a combined turnover of £10.5 billion and contribute 33% of the UK’s pharmaceutical GDP.

The region’s highly developed scientific and engineering skills attracted many of the world’s largest pharmaceutical and biologics manufacturing companies including Aesica, Shasun, GlaxoSmithKline, FujiFilm Disosynth Biotechnologies, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Bristol Laboratories and Shire.

The regions’ pharmaceutical manufacturers also benefit from the wider, cross sectoral culture and expertise in highly efficient and lean manufacturing in North East England. This has resulted in a number of the pharmaceutical sites being world leading in quality and unit cost of production.

North East England has a full capability in the pharmaceutical value chain, including pre-clinical drug discovery and development, clinical research and development, clinical trial management, pilot-scale manufacturing, full-scale pharmaceutical ingredient and intermediate manufacturing, as well as final product formulation, packaging and distribution.

Fundamental medical research is undertaken in this regions’ two Russel Group universities. The University of Newcastle was the first in the UK to receive a license to perform research on embryonic stem cells and is today a leading centre for such activity. Newcastle has built on this expertise and is now a leading Centre for induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs) being used for pre-clinical research.

The region also has two highly respected Pharmacy schools in Sunderland and Durham Universities. These not only contribute pharmaceutics expertise to the regions’ pharmaceutical companies but also high calibre graduates. In addition both Newcastle and Durham Universities have considerable research strengths in the exciting field of continuous pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Translational research is channelled through the Clinical Trials Unit and the £4.5 million Newcastle Clinical Research Facility that links medical research in the University of Newcastle to the clinical excellence of the regional NHS trust.

Newcastle is one of only six locations in the UK to be granted Science City status in recognition of its excellence in scientific and medical research and development.

The International Centre for Life, also based in Newcastle, is the UK’s first biotechnology village. It was home to the £10 million Life Knowledge Park, one of six UK genetics parks, which focuses on degenerative diseases.

Most recently the £38m National Biologics Manufacturing Centre based in Darlington has opened its doors. The new Centre will provide companies with open access facilities and expertise to help them develop, prove and commercialise new and improved processes and technologies for biologics manufacture.

In addition to the National Biologics Centre, the new National Formulation Centre is planned for the NETPark science park near Sedgefield. This will also increase the region’s innovation capacity for drug development and manufacture.

North East England boosts a thriving pharmaceutical sector and is referred to by the UK Government as the ‘jewel in the crown of British Industry’.

The region is home to over 1,000 life science and healthcare companies that together employ 38,000 people, generate a combined turnover of £10.5 billion and contribute 33% of the UK’s pharmaceutical GDP.

The region’s highly developed scientific and engineering skills attracted many of the world’s largest pharmaceutical and biologics manufacturing companies including Aesica, Shasun, GlaxoSmithKline, Covance, Merck Sharp & Dohme and sanofi-aventis but to name a few.

North East England has a full capability in the pharmaceutical value chain, including pre-clinical drug discovery and development, clinical research and development, clinical trial management, pilot-scale manufacturing, full-scale pharmaceutical ingredient and intermediate manufacturing, as well as final product formulation, packaging and distribution.

Fundamental medical research is undertaken in this region at all of its five universities. The University of Newcastle was the first in the UK to receive a license to perform research on stem cells and is today a leading centre for such activity. North East England is also the only centre in the world which has successfully carried out a nuclear transfer procedure to human embryos.

Translational research is channelled through the Clinical Trials Unit and the £4.5 million Newcastle Clinical Research Facility that links medical research in the University of Newcastle to the clinical excellence of the regional NHS trust.

Newcastle is one of only six locations in the UK to be granted Science City status in recognition of its excellence in scientific and medical research and development.

The International Centre for Life, also based in Newcastle, is the UK’s first biotechnology village. It was home to the £10 million Life Knowledge Park, one of six UK genetics parks, which focuses on degenerative diseases.

Most recently the £38m National Biologics Manufacturing Centre based in Darlington has opened its doors. The new Centre will provide companies with open access facilities and expertise to help them develop, prove and commercialise new and improved processes and technologies for biologics manufacture.