The world’s first Centre of Excellence for Long-acting Therapeutics (CELT) was established by the University of Liverpool in 2020 as part of a £30.5m international research consortium.
Primarily funded by global health organisation Unitaid, CELT combines the University’s world-renowned expertise in pharmacology and materials chemistry to transform treatments that already exist in pill form into long-acting medicines, making key drugs much easier for patients to take and for clinicians to administer.
These injectable, implantable or transdermal approaches are also applicable to new drugs in development.
Spinning out of CELT-based research, pioneering company Tandem Nano is a key collaborator in the Unitaid funded LONGEVITY project, and has also secured commercial contracts with major players in a variety of sectors.
The Investment Zone will enable CELT’s rapid expansion into HEMISPHERE One, a new high-tech development at Paddington Village, part of Knowledge Quarter Liverpool. CELT will occupy around 4,000 sq m (43,000 sq ft) of pharmacology and chemistry laboratories in a purpose-built facility for the creation and understanding of long-acting medicines.
Opportunities to co-locate with Clatterbridge Cancer Centre Liverpool, Liverpool University Foundation Hospital Trust and NIHR Liverpool Clinical Research Facility into HEMISPHERE One are also planned. The new facility will accommodate more than 270 researchers and innovators working to maximise CELT activities - addressing key technology questions and ensuring patient involvement in future developments.
CELT will also bring together global health stakeholders, patients and industry to advocate for strategies to develop and deploy new medicines, ensuring the UK benefits from the economic and healthcare opportunities while maintaining a key focus on global equity.
Contact: Dr Sam Naghibi, CELT Operations Manager, at S.Naghibi2@liverpool.ac.uk
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