Works to manufacture the offsite components have begun at Merit’s Cramlington factory, with news of the firm’s appointment coming after the approval of plans to deliver the NHS facility by NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care, following a successful joint bid by the North East and North Cumbria Provider Collaborative.
The Medicines Manufacturing Centre will work alongside existing aseptic units across the region’s hospitals, serving the North East and North Cumbria. It will produce chemotherapy treatments, and supply injectable and ‘pre-labelled’ medicines to help support local hospital teams as patients are discharged. Merit said: “The new facility’s importance cannot be understated; the aim is to greatly increase capacity for aseptic services in the region via the delivery of up to one million dosages of medication each year. It is also expected to create around 150 new jobs.”
The ‘state-of-the-art’ MMC will include Grade B and Grade C cleanrooms, production areas, Quality Control (QC) laboratories and administrative and welfare facilities. Merit will utilise its Flexi Pod fit-out product-based approach to deliver the facility. Leveraging an offsite approach will see the centre completed by September 2025 – just 13 months from contract award. Around 87% of the build will be undertaken offsite at the ‘smart’ factory in Cramlington.
Merit’s team has designed the facility with sustainability in mind, ensuring that the NENC Provider Collaborative receives a Zero Scope 1 carbon-enabled facility, which will comfortably achieve EPC-A rating.
The industrialised construction and digital manufacturing specialist’s latest contract win builds on its ‘collaborative reputation’ for working closely with regional partners to deliver high-quality Northumberland-based facilities. The team delivered Northumbria’s Centralised Sterilisation and decontamination centre throughout the height of COVID-19 restrictions, and is currently delivering the Trust’s new Community Hospital in Berwick.
Ken Bremner MBE, Chair of the region’s Provider Collaborative, and CEO of the South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust, said: “This is another important milestone, and really good news for patients as we continue to develop our plans for the new Medicines Manufacturing Centre. While our existing units across the region will continue to play a vital role, the new facility will help us achieve much greater manufacturing efficiencies by working on a much bigger scale. It will allow us to greatly increase our medicines production capacity, create a sustainable model for the future, and help us save time and money that we can then re-invest in patient care.”