Southwest businesses come together to create new cleanroom venture

Image credit: Modular Clean Air

Two South West businesses are behind a new joint venture specifically designed to allow fast-growing pharmaceutical and life sciences organisations across the UK to speed up their research, manufacturing and time to market.

Street-based Total Clean Air (TCA) has joined forces with Gloucester-based Vanguard HealthcareSolutions, an award-winning provider of modular healthcare infrastructure, to create Modular Clean Air (MCA), to design and build fully compliant off-site manufactured cleanrooms, and make them available in a fraction of the time of traditional builds.

Cleanrooms are essential for industries where precision and contamination control are critical, such as pharmaceuticals and life sciences. The move complements the UK Government’s investments in the sector, designed to place the UK as a world leader in life sciences, with £520 million pledged to life sciences manufacturing projects in July 2025[1].
Globally the cleanroom technology market is projected to more than triple to c. £139.7bn by 2031,[2].

Phillip Godden, Chief Executive of Total Clean Air, said: “Speed and compliance are key in our industry. With Modular Clean Air, we’re proving that fully compliant off-site manufactured cleanrooms can be designed, built, and validated in a fraction of the time of traditional builds. It’s the ideal solution for research and manufacturing organisations in the fields of pharmaceuticals and life sciences.”

The new joint venture combines Total Clean Air’s cleanroom engineering expertise with Vanguard Healthcare Solutions’ modular construction and healthcare infrastructure capability, creating a unique partnership between two British companies specialising in the cleanroom and healthcare arena.

MCA’s three cleanroom options, all designed and built in Britain, will be unveiled at Lab Innovations 2025, at the NEC Birmingham (29–30 October), where visitors will be able to walk-through an MCA cleanroom demonstrator and take a virtual reality (VR) tour of larger installations.

Chris Blackwell-Frost, Chief Executive Officer of Vanguard Healthcare Solutions, added: “Modular Clean Air brings together two organisations committed to quality, compliance, and speed. We’re opening new opportunities for businesses across pharmaceuticals and life sciences, enabling faster speed to production, scale-up and research.”

The launch of Modular Clean Air strengthens the South West’s growing reputation as a hub for engineering excellence and high-value manufacturing, supporting skilled jobs and innovation across the region.

For more information, visit www.modularcleanair.com.