Pfizer is making a £10 million investment at its Kent plant.

The pharmaceutical giant, which is making one of the Covid vaccines, is putting the money into advanced manufacturing technology at its base at Sandwich.

This is to speed up the development of new breakthrough medicines.

The company says that the coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the need to create new vaccines and medicines at pace and scale.

PThe investment Pfizer's Discovery Park site, includes a portable continuous manufacturing module (PCMM) to rapidly develop tablets for clinical trials around the world.

The technology means you increase the module's hours of use to scale up manufacturing from thousands of tablets to hundreds of thousands or even millions when needed.

A company spokesman said: "The big idea is to speed up the manufacture of medicines.

" Working on both physical and virtual production side by side improves efficiency by cutting down the amount of materials needed and time it takes to develop each formula.

"Covid-19 has emphasised how essential it is to be able to scale up new treatments at pace.

" Shortening treatment manufacturing processes and reducing process variability are key factors in enabling clinical trials to progress at pace and could drastically speed up the delivery of life-changing treatments to patients around the world. "

Pfizer estimates that 70% of its small molecule, solid oral dose medicines will be manufactured on PCMM by 2029.

Around 85% of the company's small molecule products pass through Discovery Park on their journey to market.

The work of the team there helps millions of patients globally.

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