A NORTH-EAST organisation behind revolutionary technology work has unveiled plans to create unique medical treatments.

The Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) says it is exploring specialist medicines, capable of being tailored to patients' individual needs.

Bosses say the vision, known as precision medicine, would make smaller batches of drugs available at the bedside or in a portable unit, which could be taken to the source of major outbreaks, such as Ebola.

The proposals come as the CPI continues preparations to build a £20m base in Darlington.

Hailed as the first of its type in Europe, the site is due to open in 2017, and will focus on the same technology behind precision medicine, testing and making technology to deliver treatments for specific diseases and patient cases.

Referring to its precision work, a spokesman said the CPI is working on the concept by helping firms scale down traditional manufacturing methods and develop new techniques.

He said: “We need to develop new ways in which therapies are developed, made, transported and administered.

“Many treatments offer a one-size-fits-all approach, but not all patients respond in the same way and side effects vary.

“It is now possible to customise medicine to meet the needs of a much smaller group suffering from the same specific type of disease.

“By scaling down and integrating process technologies required to make these therapies into a small-scale manufacturing unit, it is possible to rapidly change between different products and produce small volumes.

“These units could then be used to treat small patient groups or be easily moved around the world to make at the site of an epidemic.”

As well as the £20m site, the CPI is close to completing building work on the £38m National Biologics Manufacturing Centre, again in Darlington.

That will open later this year and support companies’ research and development on potentially life-saving cures and vaccines, including cancer treatment, helping experts take concepts to the market place.

But the CPI, which has its head office at Wilton, near Redcar, is also expanding further across the region.

Earlier this year, it revealed it was working with the North East Local Enterprise Partnership to build a site at NetPark, in Sedgefield, County Durham.

The £18m National Centre for Healthcare Photonics will open in 2017 to focus on light-based cancer treatments and allow firms to research and scale-up specialised treatments for skin cancer and eye disease, as well as conditions such as jaundice.