Medicines
The medicines sector is characterised by a few large pharmaceutical companies and a large number of SME biotech companies.
Medicines
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Support for companies of all sizes is provided by the Health Team across the sector but particularly linked with the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals and advanced therapeutics. Members of the Health Team are closely aligned with the Medicines Manufacturing Industry Partnership and the Bioindustry Association.
Innovate UK Business Connect also organises the Medicines Manufacturing Challenge Community. Its core goal is to accelerate the outcomes from the medicines manufacturing ISCF Challenge which has seen £146m invested in different projects, including the Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre and Advanced Therapy Treatment Centres.
Related Opportunities
Launchpad: life and health sciences, Northern Ireland – Rd3 MFA
Opens: 20/10/2025 Closes: 26/11/2025
UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £1.2m for projects that grow their innovation activities in the life and health sciences cluster in Northern Ireland.
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Biomedical Catalyst 2025: Industry led R&D large projects
Opens: 10/11/2025 Closes: 10/12/2025
UK registered micro, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) can apply for a share of up to £25 million for the development of innovative solutions to health and healthcare challenges. This funding is from Innovate UK.
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Biomedical Catalyst 2025: Industry led R&D small projects
Opens: 10/11/2025 Closes: 10/12/2025
UK registered micro, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) can apply for a share of up to £25 million for the development of innovative solutions to health and healthcare challenges. This funding is from Innovate UK.
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EUP OHAMR 2026 transnational call: New treatments to tackle Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)
Opens: 18/11/2025 Closes: 02/02/2026
International call to explore new "Treatments and adherence to treatment protocols" to tackle AMR, total call budget of over 31 million Euro.
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Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP): 2025 – 2026 Round 4
Opens: 27/10/2025 Closes: 26/11/2025
UK registered academic institutions, RTOs or Catapults, working with businesses or not for profits, can apply for a share of up to £10m.
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Innovate UK Innovation Loans Round 24
Opens: 23/10/2025 Closes: 07/01/2026
UK registered businesses can apply for loans for close to market innovative projects with strong commercial potential. They must significantly improve the UK economy and drive societal benefit.
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Related Events and Recordings
Related News
07/03/2025
Innovate UK championing sustainable innovations in medicines manufacturing
Innovate UK’s Sustainable Medicines Manufacturing Innovation programme (SMMIP) focuses on industry-led innovation towards more sustainable medicines manufacturing in the UK.
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24/07/2024
£3.2m funding awarded to advance early-stage healthcare innovation
Thirty-three companies, which took part in Innovate UK Biomedical Catalyst pilot accelerators, have been awarded funding to further develop their innovative projects.
Read more
Related programmes
Transforming Medicines Manufacturing
Innovate UK’s Transforming Medicines Manufacturing programme aims to drive the de-risking and adoption of highly innovative flexible, agile and scalable manufacturing technologies through a culture of collaboration that will drive the growth of this critically important manufacturing sector.
Biomedical Catalyst
Accelerating the translation of innovative ideas and discoveries into healthcare solutions that improve lives. The Biomedical Catalyst transforms innovative ideas into commercially viable businesses. It delivers sector growth, de-risks innovation and gets companies investment ready.
Medimap: End-to-end medicines supply chain map
Medimap is a new interactive reference tool for the UK medicines sector, mapping and categorising over 3,000 sites of organisations engaged in or supporting the end-to-end supply chain for medicines.