GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is receiving funding as part of the Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative, which aims to improve the U.K.’s manufacturing prowess and improve job growth in that sector. The £11 million (around $18.38 million) GSK received will go to a consortium of 22 life sciences companies led by the firm for a £23 million ($38.43 million) project that aims to alter the way the U.K. life sciences sector manufactures medicines.
GSK says the goal of this new project will be to bring pharmaceutical manufacturing into the twenty-first century with more personalized production that is closer to patients. The partnership, it says, will create 70 new jobs, with 307 jobs safeguarded, plus the potential for licensing the process overseas.
The funding GSK received was part of a £245 million ($409.83 million) government supply chain fund, which aims to help rebuild British manufacturing prowess. GSK’s project was one of nine that received a total of £129 million ($215.8 million) of support from both goverment and private sources.
“Our backing for skills, apprenticeships, supply chains, innovation, and new technologies is creating the right environment for business to invest here,” said U.K. business secretary Vince Cable in a statement regarding the Initiative. Cable is an advocate of “reshoring”, or the trend of manufacturers moving production and jobs back to the U.K. from other less-expensive locations overseas.