Wales

Excellence in Manufacturing

Wales has the critical mass to support biotechnology effectively.

The cluster has over 90 biotech companies with R&D and manufacturing base and 140 plus biotech organizations with several big international companies located here. Amersham Biosciences is located in Cardiff and develops and manufactures products for genomics, proteomics, and drug discovery. Similarly, Bayer Diagnostics, Cell Factors, Argonaut Technologies etc. are present in Wales. CellFactors, Newport, is an interesting case. It is preparing to market its first human cell-based research product Skeletex. It shifted from Cambridge to Newport to carry on R&D in its neural cell technology, which is expected to be the answer for treating Parkinson's disease.

With diverse expertise, it is well placed to assist companies in the bioscience area. A comprehensive package of support services is available for companies including contract manufacturers. The assistances include those for meeting US FDA and European approvals for biomanufacturing plants, funding and incentives for setting up new plants, and support in finding suppliers of special products. Besides there are specialized developers experienced in building biomanufacturing plants.

The region is strongly committed to the development of its biotech activity. It has 200 sites with more than 4,500 acres of space available. Besides, there is space for offices and labs, which want to have close links to the academic research communities. Facilities are available MediCentre at the University of Wales College of Medicine, Swanese Innovation center of University of Wales Swansea, the Aber BioCentres in the Wales University, and BioTechnium in Swansea. The Welsh Development Agency and Wales Trade International are partners in Team Wales, a single dedicated point of contact in Wales.

The good manufacturing platform is ably supported by quality research base. Cardiff University is among the top 10 universities in the UK and has strong foundation in biological sciences, medical genetics, medical biochemistry etc. It is very active in stem cell research too. In fact it signed an agreement with Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad for mouse genetic research and stem cell research. This is just an example. What's important, there are spinout programmes. For e.g., under the Wales support programme seven companies have spun out.