{"id":88230,"date":"2018-01-22T14:36:19","date_gmt":"2018-01-22T14:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=6034785415c09c12ef87cbb16d5f35ad"},"modified":"2018-01-22T14:36:19","modified_gmt":"2018-01-22T14:36:19","slug":"news-story-improved-healthcare-for-all-pioneering-projects-get-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=88230","title":{"rendered":"News story: Improved healthcare for all: pioneering projects get funding"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>New initiatives to accelerate the development and manufacture of new medicines that could have real benefits to patients will share almost \u00a350 million. The funding is from Innovate UK under the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/collections\/industrial-strategy-challenge-fund-joint-research-and-innovation\">Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This is the leading edge healthcare challenge, which supports UK businesses and researchers to develop and manufacture new medicines and vaccines, as well as digital health products and medical technologies. A total of \u00a3181 million will be invested over 4 years.<\/p>\n<div class=\"call-to-action\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/collections\/industrial-strategy-challenge-fund-joint-research-and-innovation#accelerating-innovative-healthcare-and-medicines\">Find out more about the challenge<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2 id=\"the-challenge-of-manufacturing-medicines\">The challenge of manufacturing medicines<\/h2>\n<p>To stimulate the development and manufacture of novel medicines for patients, 22 projects involving 58 organisations will get \u00a315 million.<\/p>\n<p>One of those to receive funding is <a rel=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/meiragtx.com\/\">MeiraGTx<\/a>, which develops novel gene therapies for patients with acquired and inherited disorders, such as Alzheimer\u2019s and Parkinson\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"image embedded\">\n<div class=\"img\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.publishing.service.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/image_data\/file\/71101\/MeiraGTx_Jon_Telfer.jpg\" alt=\"MeiraGTX_Jon Telfer\"><\/div><figcaption>MeiraGTx&#8217;s Jon Telfer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>MeiraGTx will work with <a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.touchlight.com\/\">Touchlight Genetics<\/a> and <a rel=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/www.symbiosis-pharma.com\/\">Symbiosis Pharmaceutical Services<\/a> to develop a next-generation gene-therapy manufacturing platform.<\/p>\n<p>The project will look at the manufacturing process for the adeno-associated virus. This virus infects humans but is not known to cause disease, making it a good candidate for gene therapies. It should help to deliver new treatments more quickly and efficiently.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"new-digital-healthcare-solutions\">New digital healthcare solutions<\/h2>\n<p>Innovate UK will also invest \u00a38 million in 52 projects through the digital health technology catalyst, which aims to improve patient outcomes, access to healthcare and service delivery and treatments.<\/p>\n<p>Digital therapeutics start-up <a rel=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/neurofenix.com\/\">Neurofenix<\/a> will partner with <a rel=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/www.brunel.ac.uk\/\">Brunel University London<\/a> to develop Gameball, an affordable and enjoyable rehabilitation programme for patients with neurological impairment, which includes people that have suffered strokes.<\/p>\n<p>Patients will use a hand-controller and connected software to take part in digital games. It will provide upper-limb training to help patients regain mobility, an online community of support, as well as analytics on performance.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"image embedded\">\n<div class=\"img\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.publishing.service.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/image_data\/file\/71090\/Neurofenix_Guillem_Singla_Buxarrais_and_Dimitris_Athanasiou.jpg\" alt=\"Neurofenix's Guillem Singla Buxarrais and Dimitris Athanasiou\"><\/div><figcaption>Neurofenix&#8217;s Guillem Singla Buxarrais and Dimitris Athanasiou.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"call-to-action\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/collections\/innovate-uk-health-and-life-sciences\">Find out how Innovate UK supports health and life sciences<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2 id=\"centres-for-advanced-therapies\">Centres for advanced therapies<\/h2>\n<p>\u00a321 million will go towards setting up a network of 3 advanced therapies treatment centres that span the UK.<\/p>\n<p>The centres will be alliances between the north of England and Scotland, and the Midlands and Wales, with the final site being based in Manchester.<\/p>\n<p>This is a joint collaboration between hospitals, therapeutics development businesses and the supply chain. It should advance the use of pioneering cell and gene therapies with a large number of patients.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"building-the-uks-capacity\">Building the UK\u2019s capacity<\/h2>\n<p>Finally, a further \u00a35.6 million will go to the manufacture and production of viral vectors.<\/p>\n<p>Viral vectors are important to advanced therapies as the carrier of gene therapy treatments. However, there is a shortage of capacity for making viral vectors in the UK.<\/p>\n<p>The projects funded under this competition will expand commercial capacity in the UK and increase the ability to produce viral vectors to be used in advanced therapy medicinal products.<\/p>\n<p>Work will be conducted at 2 locations at Oxford and Keele, Staffordshire.<\/p>\n<div class=\"call-to-action\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/innovate-uk-funding-competition-winners-2017\">See the full list of winning projects<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"image embedded\">\n<div class=\"img\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.publishing.service.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/image_data\/file\/71091\/Neurofenix_3D_Printing.jpg\" alt=\"One of Neurofenix's 3D printers\"><\/div><figcaption>One of Neurofenix&#8217;s 3D printers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2 id=\"new-opportunities\">New opportunities<\/h2>\n<p>In addition to the almost \u00a350 million already pledged under this challenge, a further \u00a318 million will be made available to UK businesses and researchers in 2 new competitions.<\/p>\n<p>There will be up to \u00a38 million in the next round of the digital health technology catalyst. Up to \u00a310 million will support collaborative research and development in medicines manufacturing.<\/p>\n<p>These will open for applications in February and March 2018.<\/p>\n<div class=\"call-to-action\">\n<p>Sign up for <a rel=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/info.innovateuk.org\/emailpref\">Innovate UK\u2019s newsletter<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/email-signup\/new?email_signup%5Bfeed%5D=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gov.uk%2Fgovernment%2Forganisations%2Finnovate-uk.atom\">get alerts of news and competitions<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"call-to-action\">\n<p><a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk\/competition\/search\">Search and apply for innovation funding<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2 id=\"developing-research-and-innovation\">Developing research and innovation<\/h2>\n<p>Sam Gyimah, Minister for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/organisations\/department-for-business-energy-and-industrial-strategy\">Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy<\/a>, announced the funding today (22 January 2018) in a visit to <a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.imperial.ac.uk\/\">Imperial College London<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Minister also outlined plans to map UK\u2019s research infrastructure to show strengths and identify any gaps. This will be the first major piece of work by <a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ukri.org\/\">UK Research and Innovation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"call-to-action\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/news\/industrial-strategy-boost-for-uk-medicines-with-70-million-of-funding-to-help-develop-new-treatments\">Read the full announcement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"call-to-action\">\n<p><a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ukri.org\/news\/\">See the latest news from UK Research and Innovation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nearly \u00a370 million to be invested under the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund to speed up access to innovative medicines, including 2 new competitions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88230"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=88230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88230\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=88230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=88230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=88230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}