Merit wins project on home turf
The Northumberland-headquartered specialist has been picked to design and fit out an NHS medicines manufacturing centre in Seaton Delaval.
The appointment has been made by the North East and North Cumbria Provider Collaborative and will be hosted by Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, at its manufacturing & innovation hub.
Works to manufacture the offsite components of the build have begun in Merit’s Cramlington factory.
Merit’s appointment comes as plans to deliver the NHS facility have been given the green light by NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care, following a successful joint bid by NENC Provider Collective.
The new MMC, which will work alongside existing aseptic units across the region’s hospitals, will produce chemotherapy treatments for patients and will serve the North East and North Cumbria.
The facility will also supply a range of injectable medicines, as well as ‘pre-labelled’ medicines to help support local hospital teams as patients are discharged home.
The MMC will include the provision of Grade B and Grade C cleanrooms, production areas, and quality control laboratories as well as admin and welfare facilities.
Merit’s contract announcement builds on experience gained on projects including Northumbria’s Centralised Sterilisation and decontamination centre throughout the height of COVID-19 restrictions, while the firm is currently delivering the Trust’s new community hospital in Berwick.
Other p\health sector projects are being delivered by the firm in Oxfordshire, Woking and Norwich.
Merit will utilise its FLEXI POD fit-out product-based approach to deliver this facility. Leveraging an offsite approach through Merit’s FLEXI POD solution will allow for the MMC completion by September 2025, the firm said.
Around 87% of the build will be carried out off-site, at Cramlington. An EPC rating is expected to be achieved comfortably.
Tony Wells, chief executive of Merit, said: “I am looking forward to working closely with the NENC Provider Collaborative and seeing this project come to fruition over the next year.
“Our team will be applying our vast expertise in the design of sterile manufacturing facilities in order to bring this facility in operation quicker, so that life-saving treatments can be manufactured earlier to serve patients across the North East and North Cumbria.”
