Professor Alastair Florence
Director of CMAC; Massimo Bresciani, Industry Director at CMAC and CEO of OpenCMC
Massimo Bresciani
Industry Director at CMAC and CEO of OpenCMC
When medicines are unavailable, the consequences are immediate. Treatments are delayed, healthcare systems come under pressure, and patients are left without medicines they urgently need.
Shortages reflect a bigger challenge: translating scientific breakthroughs into medicines that can be manufactured reliably, affordably and at scale.
Tackling medicine manufacturing challenges
The NHS 10 Year Health Plan is pushing for faster access to medicines, while the UK Government works to secure supplies of existing treatments. As the UK renews its investment in life sciences research and development, the way medicines are made is coming under greater scrutiny.
Based at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, CMAC is a medicines manufacturing research centre tackling this challenge. It was established to connect academic science with pharmaceutical development and manufacturing.
From science to manufacturing
As countries worldwide invest in pharmaceutical manufacturing, the UK must ensure its scientific strengths translate into manufacturing capability at scale.
CMAC bridges this gap by working with nine global pharmaceutical partners, including AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Roche and Takeda. It also works alongside a network of technology companies and academic institutions. These collaborations keep its research aligned with real manufacturing challenges.
Much of that collaboration happens at CMAC’s purpose-built facility in the heart of Glasgow’s City Innovation District. Through projects and longer-term partnerships, companies of all sizes work with researchers and access specialist equipment, digital tools and automation technologies.
Massimo Bresciani, Industry Director at CMAC and CEO of OpenCMC, explains: “The question is not whether the UK can produce world-class science — it can. What matters is whether we can turn that science into manufacturing capability that helps accelerate patients’ access to medicines. CMAC brings industry and academia together to make that translation happen, combining science, digital technologies and physical AI.”
Equipping the future workforce with the skills to use it is equally important
to position the UK as the place to deliver these benefits
Turning investment into impact
Turning promising research into practical manufacturing approaches requires sustained investment in infrastructure, technology, data and people. Over 15 years, CMAC has secured more than £200 million in investment to build the facilities and expertise its research depends on.
This investment includes the CMAC Data Lab, a Digital Medicines Manufacturing Research Accelerator funded by UK Research and Innovation and the Scottish Funding Council. Designed as a Lab of the Future, it connects advanced equipment with predictive models and digital tools. It allows researchers to design and test new manufacturing approaches before they are deployed at scale.
Training the next generation
Technology is only part of the story. Equipping the future workforce with the skills to use it is equally important to position the UK as the place to deliver these benefits.
CMAC has supported more than 170 PhD and MSc researchers, including the first two cohorts from CEDAR, an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council-funded Centre for Doctoral Training. CEDAR will train 90 PhD researchers for an increasingly digital, autonomous and data and AI-driven industry. By developing these skills, CEDAR will help organisations improve productivity and create new models for medicines supply.
Modular manufacturing boosts medicine resilience
Alastair Florence, CMAC Director, says: “Global supply chains will always matter, but we need resilience. Britain now has a world-first regulatory route to modular manufacture. By harnessing data, AI, robotics and advanced processes, we can help new medicines reach patients faster while reducing the risk of empty shelves. This creates a national capability that can support new medicines trials or respond to a national emergency.”
By connecting industry, academia, healthcare and government, CMAC is helping to make medicines manufacturing more sustainable, resilient and better equipped to meet the ambitions of the NHS 10 Year Health Plan. Ultimately, this improves access to new medicines and helps address shortages of essential treatments.
