Medicines Discovery Catapult

The Medicines Discovery Catapult (MDC) is a UK-based organization focused on medicine research and innovation, headquartered at Alderley Park in Cheshire. It was announced in July 2015 with £5m funding as part of the Northern Powerhouse initiative. Initially named the Medicines Technologies Catapult, it received a £10m grant from Innovate UK in December 2015 and was renamed MDC on 1 March 2016. Further funding of approximately £10m annually was secured from Innovate UK for 2018 to 2023. The Precision Medicine Catapult (PMC), based in Cambridge with regional centers, operated from April 2015 until its closure in June 2017. Most of its functions were transferred to MDC, with the Leeds site becoming the Leeds Centre for Personalised Medicine and Health. MDC is a not-for-profit company that collaborates with UK innovators to advance projects toward clinical impact. In 2019, it focused on four sectors: predictive biological models, computational drug discovery techniques, collaboration between health providers and government bodies, and partnerships between charities and industry. That year, staff grew from 40 to 75, with income of £8.5m from Innovate UK and £152,000 from research collaborations, resulting in a small loss after expenses. In 2020, MDC established a COVID-19 PCR analysis center (Lighthouse lab) at Alderley Park, which by 2021 employed over 700 staff and could process 80,000 test samples daily. Dr. Robin Brown has been chairman since July 2018, with a background in molecular biology and venture capital. Previously, Professor Graham Boulnois chaired the organization from January 2016, having worked at Zeneca Pharmaceuticals ...