Healthcare industries and clusters, the growth of biomedical research centres, the national life sciences strategy, and the Academic Health Science Networks and innovation have vital roles in the regional health and social care economy.
Healthcare industries in the North West
The North West is a major biomedical cluster (the application of the natural sciences, especially the biological and physiological sciences, to clinical medicine) with over 200 companies in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and healthcare industries that employ over 20,000 people. The region has the largest cluster of advanced flexible materials manufacturers (which includes textiles), in Europe and accounts for two-thirds of UK manufacturing capacity. The North West had 12,400 employees in
pharmaceutical manufacturing in 2010, which accounted for 21% of the Great Britain total (Skills of Health et al. 2010). Seven multinational pharmaceutical companies have plants in the region (AstraZeneca (including Medimmune), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Sanofi Aventis, Eli Lilly, BMS and Novartis). Astra Zeneca is relocating its largest global research centre with 1,600 jobs to Cambridge, although its manufacturing plant with 3,000 employees will remain in Macclesfield. Its research facilities at Alderley Park will become a new biohub.
GSK is expanding its Ulverston, Cumbria, plant with a new facility to manufacture biopharmaceutical medicines for treating cancer, autoimmune and hereditary ailments. It will create about 250 jobs but is not scheduled to be fully operational until 2021 (www. pharmaceutical-technology.com).
Advanced flexible materials manufacturing is concentrated in central Lancashire and the northern part of Greater Manchester. Over 480 advanced flexible materials companies employ 37,000 people in the region with a total turnover of £4bn and 70% of sales generated by exports. The textiles industry is particularly important for the manufacture of workwear and textiles in the medical, aerospace, industrial, automotive and construction sectors.
liverpool and Manchester biomedical research centres
A new biomedical facility is planned at the new Royal Liverpool University Hospital to add to several existing research centres such as the Cancer Research UK Centre, the Wolfson Centre for Personalised Medicine (one of only three in the world), and the Centre for Materials Discovery, all based at the University of Liverpool.
One of the eleven new Genomic Medicine Centres will be located in Liverpool as part of the national 100,000 Genomes Project (the complete set of DNA and all the inheritable traits of an organism). The Liverpool-based North West Coast NHS Genomic Medicine Centre, a partnership led by Liverpool Womens Hospital alongside Liverpool Health Partners will involve other North West NHS Trusts.
The National Institute for Health Research’s Manchester Biomedical Research Centre was established in 2008 to accelerate scientific breakthroughs from the laboratory, through clinical trials and into practice across the NHS to improve patient care. The Centre, a partnership between Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Manchester, is a specialist centre of excellence in genetics and developmental medicine.
life sciences national strategy
The government launched an industrial strategy in life sciences to attract new investment, create new jobs and strengthen NHS leadership in health research (Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, 2011). Life sciences includes any science that deals with living organisms, their life processes, and their interrelation- ships, such as biology, medicine, or ecology.
North West NHS Innovation
TRUSTECH is an NHS organisation and part of a national network of NHS innovation hubs that helps to identify and develop innovations such as medical devices or equipment, diagnostic or screening tools, education and training materials, software or information services. The aim is to “…turn new
ideas into products to meet the demands of future healthcare, and help spread innovative ideas across hospitals and community settings to improve patient care” (http://www.trustech.org.uk). TRUSTECH
provides an innovation management service for NHS organisations in the North West and UK companies from the Manchester biomedical research centre with offices in Liverpool and Daresbury. The organisation assesses innovations developed by Trust staff to see if they could be developed into commercial products or services and advises how they can protect their innovations. It also provides support on how to commercialise innovations, funding sources, identify commercial partners and negotiate agreements. The North West Fund for Biomedical provides £50,000 to £1.5m to companies operating in the Biomedical Sector, such as pharmaceuticals (research, development and manufacture of drugs and biop- harmaceuticals); biotechnology; diagnostics; clinical research organisations; contract manufacturing organisations; analytical services and sciences; and healthcare technologies and medical devices.
The region also has several Clinical Research Facilities for experimental medicine at Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust and University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust. The four centres are part of UK Clinical Research Collaboration, which has £102m funding between 2012-2017.
Drive to accelerate innovation
The North West has two Academic Health Science Networks – North West Coast (West Cheshire, Merseyside, Lancashire and South Cumbria) and Greater Manchester (including East Lancashire and East Cheshire) – with north Cumbria included in the North East and North Cumbria AHSN as part of 15 academic health science networks recently funded by the government.
They will work between the NHS, universities and industry to speed up the adoption of innovation, promote collaboration and co-development, and to identify and address unmet medical needs.
“AHSN have been established as autonomous bio-enterprises & small/medium enterprise in nature, with a five year licence commitment from NHS England. The relationship is one of investor return rather than traditional service provision and programme management. AHSNs are not the “delivery vehicle” for NHS England national programmes” (http://
www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/part-rel/ahsn/). A new NHS England Innovation Accelerator programme was launched in January 2015 inviting international health care innovators to examine how tried and tested innovations in other countries can be applied and developed in the NHS.