THE Minister for Life Sciences opened a new drug making facility at Porton on Monday.

George Freeman opened the Porton Biopharma plant which will be used to create life-saving cancer drug Erwinase.

He was accompanied by John Glen, MP for Salisbury, along with Richard Walters, Alistair Cunningham and Baroness Jane Scott from Wiltshire Council.

Mr Freeman said: “This impressive new facility on the Porton Campus has the potential to make a significant contribution to the local economy and to UK life sciences - a sector which has seen £6 billion of investment and created 17,000 jobs since 2011. Not only will it help to drive the innovation and growth of the future, it will also produce life-enhancing treatments for the benefit of NHS patients.”