New £3m unit heralds revolution in drug treatments

The state-of-the-art aseptics unit for the preparation of cancer treatments, antibiotics, radiologicals and gene therapies, has been built at York Hospital after two years of intensive planning and is one of just a handful nationwide.

Hugh Bayley, Labour MP for York who is due to visit the unit today, said: "I am delighted the unit is soon to be up and running.

"York Hospital is leading the way with the innovative treatments that will be provided by the new aseptics unit.

"In the last 12 years we have seen enormous improvements in healthcare in York, and it is investment in cutting-edge facilities like the aseptics unit together with the hard work and dedication of staff at the hospital that is helping to bring about these advances."

The unit will be staffed by a team of specialists from the hospital's pharmacy department, and will help create doses of medicine to meet the particular needs of an individual patient for whom standard products would not be suitable.

The unit will also prepare injections for people to self-administer at home, allowing patients to have a shorter in-patient stay, and to complete their course of antibiotics away from the hospital.

There will also be an extra capacity for clinical trials.

Medical experts believe that in the future gene therapies developed in aseptic units will treat conditions such as cystic fibrosis, caused by a defective gene, and eradicate the need for the exhausting and potentially risky therapies currently used.

The unit will be operational from April.