Represents the largest cluster of cell and gene therapy companies outside of the US

Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult’s state-of-the-art manufacturing innovation centre located in Stevenage, is at the centre of the largest cluster of cell and gene therapy companies outside the US.

A £70m investment from government led to the opening of the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult Manufacturing Innovation Centre in Stevenage in 2012 offering a unique operating model and innovative processes to allow companies to grow with reduced infrastructure investment risk. Since then, companies based at the Centre and the Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst based on the same campus, have raised over £1.6bn in investment of which £1.1bn is in the cell and gene therapy field, part of a UK £2.5bn investment received by UK cell and gene therapy companies since 2012.

The number of UK advanced therapies medicinal products (ATMP) companies has grown significantly, from 22 in 2012 to over 90 to date. The investment in the UK has been dramatic, with UK ATMP companies having received £1.7bn of financing since 2018, of which $1bn was raised by international companies and collaborators of the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult. Furthermore, from a clinical perspective, the UK currently accounts for 12% of global ATMP clinical trials, testament to the favourable ecosystem that has been built in the UK which also translates into currently 7 reimbursed products reaching patients.

Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult also setup a skills development programme that included the Advanced Therapies Apprenticeship Community (ATAC), the first ever apprenticeship skills programme specifically for advanced therapies and funded by £1.5m from the International Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF). The programme has already deployed over 140 apprentices in more than 40 cell and gene therapy companies across the UK, half of which are fuelling the growth of companies within the cluster around Stevenage.

In 2020 Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult was granted £100m funding by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to establish additional capacity at the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult Manufacturing Innovation Centre in Braintree, Essex.