Release issued 15th September 2008

Sir William Stewart, Chairman of the Health Protection Agency, today announced that the Department of Health has provided funding to enable the Agency to begin the design work on proposals for the redevelopment of its Porton Down site.

Speaking at Health Protection 2008, the Agency’s annual conference, Sir William said: “We are delighted that the Department of Health has given the green light which will enable the Agency to move forward with the development of a blueprint for new state of the art laboratories and other facilities at Porton .

“The Centre for Emergency Preparedness and Response at Porton is one of the Agency’s major research centres and is world renowned for its work on detection, diagnosis and containment of highly infectious diseases. It is uniquely placed within the public sector to ensure new discoveries are translated into real health benefits for patients.”

Sir William added: “Ongoing work and options will be submitted to the Government for formal review and hopefully this will lead to the go-ahead for the multi-million pound redevelopment of the Porton site.”

(17th July 2008) HPA receives Capacity Building Award

(17th July 2008) Health Protection Agency to Design Laboratories for Samples from Mars

(22nd January 2007) Development of a Pan Meningococcal Vaccine for the World

(22nd November 2005) Health Protection Agency and OPi Pharmaceuticals launch drug to help children fight leukaemia

(15th November 2005) Health Protection Agency commercially develops research programme to deliver public health benefit