£33m fund to speed new health products
ANEW £33m fund to help speed up the development of new healthcare products and services has been announced by the Welsh Government.
Health Secretary Vaughan Gething says the funding has the potential to boost the Welsh economy and create high-quality jobs.
A total of £24m will support a project known as Accelerate, which is led by the Life Sciences Hub Wales in partnership with Cardiff University, Swansea University and the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.
Accelerate will work with industry partners to speed up the translation of ideas into new-technology products and services.
A further £9m of Welsh Government funding will be used to create additional health innovation centres across Wales.
The core aim of the centres will be to develop cutting-edge health technology to improve the prevention, treatment and management of longterm chronic conditions and take advantage of new and emerging technologies.
Organisations will be able to bid for money from the £9m fund to develop health innovation centres, similar to the Welsh Wound Innovation Centre and Respiratory Innovation Centre. The funding is on a loan repayment basis and it is expected that the centres will become selffinancing by generating profits and drawing in funding from other sources.
The money was jointly announced yesterday by Mr Gething and Economy Secretary Ken Skates.
Health Secretary Vaughan Gething said: “Developing innovative ways to prevent, treat and cure illness and disease is a vital part of the Welsh Government’s vision for the future of the NHS in Wales.
“The Accelerate programme and new health innovation centres fund will help develop new ideas for health products and services more quickly for use in our NHS and across the world.”
Economy Secretary Ken Skates said: “Our life sciences sector is thriving and worth around £2bn to the Welsh economy.
“This investment will help build on the expertise and talent we have already built up in this sector. In the long term I expect to see this investment result in hundreds of highly skilled jobs and support economic growth.”
Cari-Anne Quinn, chief executive officer at the Life Sciences Hub Wales, said: “We are thrilled to lead the Accelerate programme.
“The groundbreaking programme offers an opportunity to deliver economic and patient benefit on an unprecedented scale in Wales.
“Formally launching on July 2, the Life Sciences Hub Wales looks forward to collaborating with our partners to support Wales in becoming the place of choice for innovation in health, care and wellbeing.”