About us

Porton Biopharma is based at Porton Down near Salisbury in Wiltshire. There is a long history of pharmaceutical development and manufacturing at the Porton Down site. Both Erwinase® and Anthrax Vaccine were developed here, as well as many other products (such as Dysport® and Voraxase® which have subsequently been out-licensed to other companies).

The Porton Down site was originally under the single ownership of the UK military. In 1979, the site was split, with our part of it transferring in to the  health sphere as the Centre for Applied Microbiology & Research (CAMR)  and operated as  part of the Public Health Laboratory Service. Ownership of CAMR was transferred to the Microbiological Research Authority, a Special Health Authority in 1994  where it operated  until 2003, when it became part of the Health Protection Agency (HPA).

In 2013 the HPA was dissolved and its functions transferred to Public Health England (PHE), an executive agency of the UK Department of Health. Following this a strategic review concluded that a separate corporate structure would be most appropriate to support the strategic objectives of its pharmaceutical development and manufacturing operations.

As a result, Porton Biopharma Limited was formed, and became operational on the 1st of April 2015. The Company has approximately 260 staff and is based at Porton Down in Wiltshire, UK, co-located with Public Health England on the same campus.

We are registered in England and Wales under company number 9331560 and have our registered office at Manor Farm Road, Porton Down, Salisbury, Wiltshire SP4 0JG. Our VAT number is GB 206 6518 18.