Green light for new NHS Medicines Manufacturing Centre in Northumberland

The £29.7 million scheme has received the green light from NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care.

The manufacture of sterile medicines in the NHS plays a vital, but often unseen part in the delivery of safe and high-quality patient care.

Known as ‘aseptic’ services, NHS Foundation Trusts across the region already have their own production units but these are all working at, or nearing, capacity.

The new NHS Medicines Manufacturing Centre will serve the entire hospital network across the North East and North Cumbria and support existing aseptic units.

It will produce large volumes of chemotherapy treatment, as well as other ‘ready to administer’ injectable medicines, including intravenous antibiotics. It will also manufacture ‘pre-labelled’ medicines to help support local hospital teams as patients are discharged home.

The new facility will safeguard the supply of vital drugs for patients in the region for the next 20 years by creating an in-house and sustainable supply chain within the NHS.

Once up and running, it will release capacity in local hospital units allowing them to focus on more complex, bespoke medicines close to patients.

There will also be major benefits for staff and patients, by freeing up valuable nursing time on hospital wards to allow staff to provide other clinical care, rather than having to prepare injectable medicines themselves.

The cash injection follows a national review of NHS pharmacy aseptic services and is part of £75 million allocated to NHS England’s Infusions and Special Medicines Programme to develop a number of pathfinder hub sites across the country.

Ken Bremner, chairman of the North East and North Cumbria Provider Collaborative – a partnership between all 11 of the region’s NHS Foundation Trusts, said: “We’re delighted to get the go-ahead and start building work on this new NHS facility.

“Our existing aseptic units across the region will continue to play a vital role, but this new facility now means we can achieve much better manufacturing efficiencies by working on a much bigger scale.

"It will allow us to greatly increase our capacity for medicines production, create a sustainable model for the future and help us save time and money that we can reinvest in patient care.

"As works gets underway, it will also bring many wider benefits to the region, with the creation of around 150 new jobs which will generate economic growth.”

Samantha Allen, chief executive of the Integrated Care Board (ICB) for the North East and North Cumbria, added: “We are really delighted to see this project coming to fruition.

“Making sure we have our own supply of ready-made injectable medicines manufactured in-house by the NHS, for the NHS, is great news for patients.

"We know pressure in this area will only increase as medicines and treatments continue to advance and this will futureproof the supply chain for many years to come for people here in our region.”

Work is ongoing with construction company Merit to finalise the detailed design and with Getinge, who will supply the specialist isolator equipment.

Building work will start on site this autumn with an aim to start operating from the centre in spring 2026 once full approval is granted from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.