Essex centre will manufacture millions of doses of Covid-19 vaccine

A state-of-the-art centre in Braintree will manufacture millions of doses of Covid-19 vaccine.

The government announced that £100m will be invested to scale up Covid-19 vaccine and gene therapy manufacturing, with an additional £4.7 million for new training facilities and an online learning platform to boost vaccine and cell and gene therapy skills.

The scaled-up Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult Manufacturing Innovation Centre in Braintree will open in December 2021.

It will complement the Vaccines Manufacturing and Innovation Centre under construction in Oxfordshire.

While the centre is under construction, the government has invested an additional £38 million to establish a rapid deployment facility, opening later this summer.

Employment in the cell and gene therapy sector is predicted to reach over 6,000 jobs by 2024, with over 3,000 in manufacturing and bioprocessing.

MP James Cleverly said: “It is excellent news that many of these new, high-skilled jobs fuelling the UK’s economic recovery will be in Braintree.”