The centre
spearheading a quiet revolution in health technology

A quiet revolution is taking place at the Wilton Centre as recognition of its track record for nurturing ground-breaking life-science companies grows on the world stage.  

The centre, based in the North East of England, is part of the UK’s largest network of science and tech businesses. 

The network is owned and managed by We are Pioneer Group (WAPG) whose property portfolio comprises nine UK sites and one in Ireland. They are home to more than 600 companies employing around 6,400 people in a combined area of more than 2.5 million sq ft.

There are 60 businesses and 750 staff at the Wilton Centre which straddles the border of the newly-created Teesside Freeport where 18,000 jobs are expected to be created over the next five years.

Although the centre is located just outside the boundary, a stretch of development land falls inside and therefore benefits from the incentives offered inside.

Major companies are moving to the Freeport to spearhead - in the words of Prime Minister Boris Johnson – a “green industrial revolution”.  New clean energy sources are being developed and the world’s biggest monopile factory, which will make the steel tubes which carry wind turbines, is being built.

Even though it is outside the Freeport, space at the Wilton Centre is much in demand from companies who are operating nearby.

While the “green industrial revolution” – involving big names, massive projects and huge numbers – is grabbing the headlines, a quiet revolution in health technology is taking place at the Wilton Centre.

“Arguably it’s going to be as life-changing and life-saving as the development of clean energy,” said the centre’s accommodation manager Claire Morton.

One company helping to save lives is Absolute Antibody.  It was set up in Oxford 10 years ago, opened a manufacturing facility at the Wilton Centre in 2014 and transferred its headquarters there in 2019.  Staff levels have increased from three to more than 50. Laboratory requirements have risen from one to eight and there are further plans for major expansion.

Absolute Antibody is also receiving recognition in the UK and globally for its cutting-edge work which supports a variety of research areas including cancer and COVID-19.  Its scientists produce engineered recombinant antibodies to support research, diagnostics and therapeutic development around the world.

Last year Absolute Antibody was presented with one of the UK’s top business awards - a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade – and in May 2022 it was the subject of a 30-minute documentary, shown throughout North America on the Bloomberg TV business channel, as part of the award-winning “World’s Greatest” series. 

The show’s executive producer Kyle Freeman said: “Absolute Antibody is on the cutting edge of this vital industry. We think our viewers will be very interested to learn the story behind this great and growing company.”

Micropore Technologies, like Absolute Antibody, has seen a dramatic growth since moving to the Wilton Centre in 2016. Then it employed just one person after being launched as a spin-out business from Loughborough University. The company now employs around 20 and has signed a long-term lease for more office and laboratory space.

Its work is also being recognised for its world-wide significance. In 2021 Micropore Technologies received the iChemE global award in recognition of its Versatile Lipid Nanoparticle Manufacturing. In the same year it was nominated in the CPhI Pharma Awards and was also a finalist in the UK Spectator Magazine’s award for Economic Innovator of the Year.

The COVID-19 vaccines developed by Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech were based on mRNA (messenger Ribonucleic Acid). Injecting synthetic mRNA teaches a body’s cells how to make a protein that will trigger an immune response to fight an infection.

Micropore’s award-winning technology creates lipid nanoparticles which are, in effect, little fatty blobs with the RNA hidden inside.

Although the technique of using LNPs was developed decades ago, before Micropore no company had found a way to produce mRNA containing LNPs in sufficient quantities, quality and consistency to be able to manufacture vaccines commercially.

“All of a sudden you’ve got a very flexible and capable drugs delivery mechanism that is capable of producing lots of different drugs much more quickly than has historically been the case,” said Micropore’s CEO Dai Hayward MBE who believes his company’s technology will help tackle previously untreatable diseases: “We are not only talking about infectious diseases like AIDS, flu and malaria we are also talking about genetic diseases like Parkinson’s and Hodgkin’s. 

"We’ve got two dozen companies in discussion about this technology, so it really is a case of from Wilton to the world.”

Micropore Technologies, Absolute Antibody and other companies at the Wilton Centre are seeing the benefits of a £2m refurbishment by WAPG which has transformed areas including the entrance, reception and restaurant. 

Numerous collaborative working spaces have been created to facilitate cross-business discussions and information sharing.  “You’re not going to discuss confidential matters but there are areas where the like-minded businesses here do help each other and of course there’s always the prospect of one doing work for the other, and that happens a lot here,” said accommodation manager Claire Morton.

On a strategic level WAPG provides support which is available to businesses across all of its sites. It has created an Expert Network of 250 people with “unsurpassed credentials” in the business of science.

“They’ve been there, they’ve done it and they all remember the people who helped them on their way,” said WAPG, which has also established its own Business Accelerator Programme accessible for businesses through all their stages of development: launch, growth, scale and exit because: “Revolutionising industry, pioneering medical technologies and transforming healthcare takes more than just a great idea and a can-do attitude. It takes a lot more.

"So, we designed a business accelerator programme specifically for life science entrepreneurs, based upon the ‘Lean Start-Up’ methodology and evidence-based entrepreneurship.”

On a visit to the Wilton Centre in March, WAPG’s executive director Toby Reid (pictured above) said: “Our role is to help high-tech businesses thrive - from start-ups to large corporates – at every stage of the innovation journey from early-stage R&D all the way through to scale-up manufacture.  The Wilton Centre is a shining example.  

“We’ve been successful in all of our sites in building up clusters of smaller companies which have the support around them and are growing.

"Together they create eco-systems which are far more sustainable, robust and resilient in the long-term than a single large employer.”

He added: “There is a really exciting blend of companies and opportunities here.  There is great growth trajectory for many of them, and we hope we can play our role in continuing to support their development and make this a really important hub of activity in the region.”