'Being chosen to pilot the new Life Sciences Large Investment Portfolio is a powerful endorsement of our strengths,' said Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram as Liverpool and Manchester were confirmed as the government’s test beds for its big life sciences scheme. For the North, the intent is simple: make more medicines here and turn research into jobs faster. (gov.uk)

Announced on Tuesday 14 April by Science and Technology Secretary Liz Kendall, the package steers more than £80m into three manufacturers - Accord in Barnstaple (over £45m for novel treatments including bipolar disorder medicines), the University of Birmingham’s PHTA (£10m for near‑patient biomanufacturing) and Codis in Haverhill - supports over 500 jobs, takes sector investment to £600m so far this year and, through LSIMF, is on course to reach £1bn by the summer. (gov.uk)

Northern exporters get a policy tailwind too. A new UK–US arrangement gives British pharmaceutical exports a 0% tariff into the United States for at least three years - the only such deal worldwide - strengthening the case for making in the UK and selling into America. (gov.uk)

Rotheram points to the city region’s Life Sciences Innovation Zone - promoted as unlocking up to £800m and 8,000 jobs - as the platform to turn pilot status into long‑term investment. In Manchester, leaders are banking on the Oxford Road Corridor’s mix of universities, NHS trusts and industry to do the same. (investliverpoolcityregion.com)

Accord’s North Devon site may be 250 miles from the Mersey, but its output flows straight into northern wards and high‑street pharmacies. The company says it supplies around 10% of all NHS medicines by volume - the kind of everyday resilience clinicians have pushed for since the pandemic. (accord-healthcare.com)

Birmingham’s PHTA will add capacity to make therapies closer to the bedside, speeding trials and response times. It builds on Europe’s first personalised mRNA vaccine trial for pancreatic cancer already recruiting in the city with University Hospitals Birmingham, a signal that advanced therapies are moving from lab to theatre faster. (birmingham.ac.uk)

In Suffolk, Codis will install the UK’s only commercial‑scale, solvent‑capable GEA PSD‑4 spray dryer - specialist kit used to improve how hard‑to‑absorb medicines work. Haverhill is already a centre of excellence for spray‑dried sevelamer, used in chronic kidney disease treatment. (prnewswire.com)

Officials insist this is about resilience as well as growth. An independent Ipsos evaluation for the Office for Life Sciences reports that every £1 of LSIMF grant has so far unlocked around £12 of private investment, with projects geared to domestic supply security. (gov.uk)

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham called the pilot a chance to more effectively communicate the city‑region’s offer to investors and work more closely with Whitehall - expectations locally are for quicker decisions and clearer pipelines. (gov.uk)

It follows tougher news last year when AstraZeneca cancelled a planned £450m expansion at Speke. Securing early wins through this pilot will be seen as a test of whether the North West can convert policy into well‑paid jobs on the ground. (apnews.com)

Under the Life Sciences Large Investment Portfolio, companies committing more than £250m over three years to UK manufacturing or R&D can bid for direct grants, with a scheme budget up to £570m and awards capped at £130m per project. The programme runs to March 2030. (gov.uk)

All of today’s deals remain subject to final terms. But with tariff‑free access to the US market and a coordinated northern pitch, Liverpool and Manchester have first run at turning this policy push into jobs and reliable supplies for NHS patients. (gov.uk)