The government has bought a vaccine manufacturing facility in Essex as part of moves to ensure that any successful Covid-19 vaccine can be produced at scale in the UK.
Ministers announced that an additional £100 million will be invested in the new state-of-the-art centre to scale up Covid-19 vaccine and gene therapy manufacturing. The investment will fund a cell and gene therapy catapult manufacturing innovation centre in Braintree, Essex, which is due to open in December 2021.
The government said the centre, bought from Benchmark Holdings for £16 million, will have the capacity to produce millions of doses a month, ensuring the UK has the capabilities to manufacture vaccines and advanced medicines, including for emerging diseases, far into the future.
Alok Sharma, the business secretary,