BioIndustry Association (BIA): NGO against COVID-19 ^{Non-funding Support}

Entity: BioIndustry Association

Category: non-funding support

Description: Established in 1989, the BIA (BioIndustry Association) exists to encourage and promote a financially sound and thriving bioscience sector within the UK economy and concentrates its efforts on emerging enterprise and the related interests of companies with whom such enterprise trades. With over 300 members, the BIA supports a wide range of sectors, majoring on the human health benefits of the technology and represents the interests of these innovative companies to a broad section of stakeholders from patient groups to politicians, advancing its members interests both within the UK and internationally to create a healthy UK bioscience sector which benefits society.

1. Programme: Testing Methods Sourcing Platform
Summary: New and novel solutions to help increase Coronavirus testing methods, supplies and capacity across the UK. This platform is a partnership between the Department of Health and Social Care, the UK Bioindustry Association, British In Vitro Diagnostics Association and the Royal College of Pathologists. Royal College of Pathologists in partnership with the Department of Health and Social Care, the UK Bioindustry Association, British In Vitro Diagnostics Association, has setup a sourcing platform to seek new and novel solutions to help deliver 100,000 coronavirus tests a day by the end of April.

2. Project: BIA industry-led vaccine manufacturing taskforce
Summary: Working closely with the Government and reporting directly into the Chief Scientific Advisor, Sir Patrick Vallance. The vaccine manufacturing group will consider any COVID-19 vaccines or therapies which emerge, regardless of whether the vaccine or therapy is UK or internationally based and look to help where it can. The industry-led vaccine manufacturing group began from conversations between Steve Bates OBE, Chief Executive of the BIA and key members of the life sciences manufacturing community, in early March. From these discussions, the BIA issued a UK manufacturing capacity audit which assessed UK capability to rapidly scale up any vaccine candidates and COVID-19 therapies. The group is a collaboration of the public sector, private sector companies, academia and universities, building on the UK’s world leading science base and is chaired by Ian McCubbin OBE, former VP for Global Manufacturing and Supply at GlaxoSmithKline.

The group is currently supporting the Jenner Institute’s adenovirus vaccine candidate at the University of Oxford, led by Dr Sandy Douglas, with Professor Sarah Gilbert and the Clinical BioManufacturing Facility. There has been a successful bid to UKRI in partnership with BIA members Pall, Fujifilm, Cobra, Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult, the Vaccines Manufacturing Innovation Centre (VMIC) and Oxford Biomedica to develop rapid scale up of such a vaccine. The group is also supporting the work of Imperial College London, led by Professor Robin Shattock, where the team is working on an mRNA vaccine, and AstraZeneca is also part of the association.