VMIC Will Provide UK With A Shot In The Arm

The UK’s first dedicated strategic vaccine development and manufacturing facility at science and technology-based Harwell Campus near Oxford has been granted planning permission.

The 7,400 square metre Vaccines Manufacturing and Innovation Centre (VMIC) will be a not-for-profit organisation and has taken the unique approach of being constructed while the planning work was going on behind the scenes.

Usually, under normal circumstances, the planning approval and construction of a development of this scale would take years, with construction commencing only when approval had been granted.

However, due to the coronavirus crisis, and the national and international significance of the VMIC, the Vale of White Horse District Council fast-tracked the application process, allowing work to begin before official permission was granted.

Dr Matthew Duchars, chief executive officer of the VMIC said: “This decision by the council gained us three critical months in our race to build a pandemic capable vaccine manufacturing facility, during which time we were able to go from a grass-covered site to completion of the superstructure.”

The government awarded an additional £93 million to the VMIC in May this year, to expand the facility’s capabilities, and fast-tracking the build of the facility to bring forward its operational readiness to 2021, a full 12 months ahead of the originally scheduled date.

VMIC has also invested in more technology to increase its manufacturing capacity 20-fold, to be capable of producing 70 million pandemic vaccine doses in 4-6 months.

The VMIC will be home to up to 6,000 people across 225 organisations, as well as representation for 30 universities.

It will be a pillar organisation within the Harwell HealthTec Cluster, which comprises of 58 organisations which collectively employ 1,250 people.

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