Lakes BioScience has signed an agreement with Cytiva—a global life sciences company dedicated to advancing and accelerating therapeutics—to help initiate the implementation of innovative workflows at Lakes BioScience’s factory in Ulverston, Cumbria.
 
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.”
 
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 organizations as well as learning and training institutions.
 
“It’s a beneficial relationship for both. We want to be part of Lakes BioScience’s exciting journey,” Oland added. “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.”
  
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.
 
 “For Cytiva it is always about the patient. Our vision and mission is to enhance access to life-changing therapies. That is the same for Lakes BioScience. The medicines are for the treatment of people,” Oland continued. “The added benefit is the social impact of providing highly skilled jobs in the UK and we will achieve that through this collaboration.”
 
Oland explained that by collaborating with the National Horizons Centre at Darlington the company will develop training programs for operators. Taking this 360 degree approach is important to securing future talent.
  
“Through the collaboration between Lakes BioScience and Cytiva we are ready to be up and running and to be operational fast,” Oland commented. “A lot is happening in the UK right now. The UK wants to be self-sufficient with Brexit and this technology is needed.”
   
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. Our initial manufacturing capability will include monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) therapies, mRNA vaccines and biosimilars.”
 
Adrian Wallis, Lakes BioScience’s chief strategy and technology officer, said, “Project Apex is the first part of our overall Lakes BioScience strategy. Our intention is to invest up to £350m in a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility which uses up to 12 x 2,000-litre bioreactors.
 
“We have made substantial progress in the feasibility, concept and basic design work with the support of our world-class partners including Cytiva,” Wallis continued. “This upfront investment and work enable the project to be achieved at lightning speed over an 18-month period.”
 
Project Apex is the first part of the company’s ambitious, strategy which ultimately will increase capability threefold with a further two buildings.