A PHARMACEUTICAL manufacturing firm has signed an agreement to initiate the development of a world leading life sciences factory

Lakes BioScience has signed an agreement with Cytiva - a global life sciences leader dedicated to advancing and accelerating therapeutics - to help initiate the implementation of innovative workflows at Lakes BioScience’s factory in Ulverston.

Cytiva brings speed, efficiency and capacity to research and biomanufacturing workflows, enabling the development, manufacture and delivery of transformative medicines to patients.

Margret Oland, business development manager enterprise solutions at Cytiva, said: “We are delighted to partner with Lakes BioScience in helping them optimize their manufacturing processes.

“It’s a beneficial relationship for both. We want to be part of Lakes BioScience’s exciting journey.

“The Lakes BioScience management team’s extensive knowledge and hands-on expertise provides a strong level of trust in their success.

"They are visionaries and want to do things differently. The team is on the same path as us and their roadmap for operating excellence in the digital space is in line with ours. We both want to be very flexible and agile, using digital tools. With a blank canvas they can put all this in place from the start. They can be the operation they want to be from the start which brings lots of possibilities and opportunities to grow with the future needs of therapeutics

“Starting from scratch gives you the opportunity to operate differently and implement new ways of working and gives you the ability to introduce new technologies.”

Lakes BioScience will manufacture antibody therapies at a specially designed and built plant, which will link-up with the UK’s leading network of biopharma research and development organisations as well as learning and training institutions.

Ms Oland said mutual benefit is at the heart of the way the collaboration with Lakes BioScience will work and will deliver benefits for patients and industry partners as well as those who will take up 250 new highly-skilled jobs at the £350m factory.

Derek Willison-Parry, CEO of Lakes BioScience, said: “The Lakes BioScience business is going to create a global CDMO which is able to be dynamic and agile in its UK manufacturing capability to meet changing market requirements."

Adrian Wallis, Lakes BioScience’s chief strategy and technology officer, said: “Project Apex is the first part of our overall, and ambitious, strategy which ultimately will increase capability threefold with a further two buildings. This is the start of something really big and exciting.”