AROUND BRITAIN

DID YOU KNOW...

Pharmaceutical companies spend £4.4bn on R&D in the UK each year

The UK is rated as the best European location for bioscience, healthcare/ medical and clinical research

UK companies lead Europe in having the greatest number of medical technology devices undergoing clinical development for registration in the US

GE Healthcare, part of the General Electric Company Inc., has its headquarters in the UK a nd is the only part of GE to be bas ed outside the US

“The bioscience cluster in the North West is key to both its economic health and export performance,” says Mike Connor, UK Trade & Investment’s biomedical adviser in the region. “Our major strengths include tissue engineering and regenerative medicine; biohealth informatics; bio/ pharmaceutical manufacture; infectious diseases and vaccine development; cancer; neurosciences, clinical genetics; trials infrastructure and molecular and medical imaging. Some of the biomedical industry’s biggest healthcare companies manufacture and export their products from here.” From its manufacturing complex

in Speke, Liverpool, Novartis has become the UK’s leading producer of fl u vaccines for the global market, while, close by, Medimmune produces the only attenuated live fl u vaccine for worldwide distribution. Also in Speke, US pharmaceuticals giant Lilly manufactures a range of biologics – including human growth hormone – from the largest biologics facility in the UK, while

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NORTH WEST FACT-FILE AREA: 14,165 sq km Stretching from Cumbria in the north to Cheshire in the south POPULATION: 6.9m GROSS VALUE ADDED (GVA): £119.7bn REGISTERED BUSINESSES: 255,000 KEY SECTORS: Advanced engineering and materials; biomedical; fi nancial and professional services; digital and creative industries; energy and environmental technologies; food and drink

UNIVERSITIES: 12 INTERNATIONAL AIRPORTS: Three (Liverpool, Manchester, Blackpool)

AstraZeneca’s complex at Alderley Park, Cheshire is its largest global R&D site. Employing almost 4,000 staff, the 400-acre facility, conveniently situated close to the company’s major manufacturing site in Macclesfi eld,

is home to some of the world’s most distinguished biomedical teams. Similarly, Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Pharmaceutical Research Institute on the Wirral is the US fi rm’s key clinical R&D facility for its UK and European activities.

FIRST-CLASS FACILITIES The strength of the North West’s academic, clinical and research base is a major reason why these and countless other biomedical companies have chosen to set up operations in the region. “We have one of Europe’s largest concentrations of universities,” explains Connor, “producing 25,000 life science, medical and technology graduates, and 10,000 nursing graduates, per year. The universities of Liverpool and Manchester both have numerous high-quality life science divisions, many of which commercialise their research expertise through collaborative knowledge transfer and start-up initiatives, while Manchester’s School of Biological