Amid 'reshoring' efforts, central Virginia looks to bolster drug supply strength

NSF Engines

The U.S. National Science Foundation has announced that the public and private sector stakeholders in the Richmond-Petersburg region, working together as the Alliance for Building Better Medicine, will receive one of the first-ever NSF Regional Innovation Engines (NSF Engines) Development Awards including $1M in funding. NSF Engines represent one of the single largest broad investments in place-based research and development in the nation’s history – uniquely placing science and technology leadership as the central driver for regional economic competitiveness. Learn more

APM Tech Hub Policy Support Needed

In addition to financial investments, we recognize that policy efforts are needed to advance broader geographic diversification of the manufacturing base including incentives to advance more U.S.-based medicine production.

Under the leadership and guidance of the Policy Team at USP, we recognize the critical need to foster more resilience in the manufacturing base for U.S. drug products—especially for medicines or ingredients that are most vulnerable to supply disruptions—and to reduce the risk to patients of potential disruptions and shortages that result from the concentration of drug manufacturing in limited geographies and reliance on manufacturing in old facilities in regions where FDA oversight is limited or inconsistent.

The APM Consortia supports:

Economic or other incentive measures that will encourage multiple suppliers for key drugs, geographic diversification of manufacturing facilities, and broader component supply.
- Economic incentives to encourage increased domestic manufacturing of APIs and finished drug products in the United States, prioritizing specific medicines or ingredients that are most vulnerable to supply disruptions.
- This should include targeted investment in the development of drugs that are at high risk of shortage to ensure reserve U.S. manufacturing capacity for essential medicines that cannot be manufactured competitively at current market prices.
Market-based and pricing incentives that support domestic pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity.
Financial incentives to provide manufacturers with the necessary support to build facilities supporting advanced manufacturing technologies (AMTs) that make U.S. production more cost-competitive.
The development of tools and standards to help reduce the technical barriers to wider adoption of AMTs and support medicine quality.
The creation and/or support of public-private partnerships to bridge knowledge gaps, help understand the needs of manufacturers, identify best practices, and leverage the experience of those with extensive knowledge of AMT.

GO Virginia Region 4

Activation Capital, the convener of the Alliance for Building Better Medicine, Activation Capital, secured $2.5M in seed funding from GO Virginia and others, to help launch a regional accelerator cluster that went on to become the Alliance for Building Better Medicine. The goal the GO Virginia grant is to help build a globally competitive pharmaceutical manufacturing and R&D industry in the Central Virginia region. The support from GO Virginia helped fast-track regional efforts to reshore and secure the production of essential medicines in the United States, lower their costs and ensure access to quality medicines in the U.S. and around the world. Alliance for Building Better Medicine are currently supporting the GO Virginia project to assist with scale-up in infrastructure, workforce development, and supply chain development. Learn more

Build Back Better Regional Challenge

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) has awarded the public and private sector stakeholders in the Richmond-Petersburg region, working together as the Alliance for Building Better Medicine, with $52,942,702 as winners of the national Build Back Better Regional Challenge. As the marquee of the EDA’s American Rescue Plan, the Build Back Better Regional Challenge aims to boost economic pandemic recovery and rebuild American communities by strengthening dynamic high-tech regional industry clusters across the country, while embracing economic equity, creating well-paying jobs, meeting priority national interests and enhancing U.S. competitiveness globally. The large federal grant will be matched by $13,339,919 of funding from private and public organizations, for a total investment of $77,792,402. Learn more

No Boundaries, Just Impact

Our alliance does not define itself by lines on a map, partisanship, or titles. We are an ecosystem without “ego.” Our lifesaving results are the true form of measurement for the impact we deliver to the world.

Reimagining Manufacturing Processes

We are reimagining manufacturing processes, creating new methods, and co-developing novel pharmaceutical products. The core differentiator that sets our ecosystem apart is our alliance’s ability to rethink the entire process for creating essential medicines – from starting ingredients to medicine cabinet. We drive down costs and drive-up quality as a result of our collective efforts to create and leverage new technologies that bring only the highest-quality medicines, once in shortage, to market in record time.

Radical Collaboration

We believe in radical collaboration and participation at all times. This shared commitment is what our alliance is built upon, and it can be measured by our ability to bring together the most innovative pharmaceutical leaders and unique public-private partnerships to define a new era of health and wellness and to restore U.S. global competitiveness.

Always Building Better Medicine

Always building better medicine is fundamental to our success. Better means safer, affordable, and readily available. Better means having reliable access to medications once in chronic shortage. And it means creating medicine quickly and efficiently in a fashion that has the least impact on our planet as possible. As an alliance, we build better medicine through excellence in execution, our ability to attract ongoing public and private investment, our commitment to the communities we serve, and our ability to protect the pharmaceutical supply chain.

For the Region, For the World

Accelerating our region, our country, and our planet forward at all times can be found at the heart of everything we do. We serve as a catalyst for a globally competitive pharmaceutical manufacturing and R&D industry that spans 17 cities and counties in our region, we form ongoing partnerships with economic development agencies and industry partners, we empower manufacturers to grow and to create opportunities for 21st-century workforce development, we commercialize our shared discoveries, and we always strive to inspire further invention and investment.

Committed to Co-Investing

We are committed to co-investing and attracting outside investment. The impact created by our alliance is the direct result of co-investments from the federal government, state and local government, private sector, and other partners all working to grow through a sustainable, fiscally responsible model of collaboration.

Quadruple Bottom Line

The industry ecosystem we have created in the Commonwealth of Virginia gauges its success using four dimensions of performance: health, social, environmental, and financial impact. We are holistic – addressing multiple, interconnected priorities such as translational research that sparks engineering research, strengthening degree programs and our higher education network, creating opportunities for 21st-century workforce development in life science/advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing, creating higher-paying jobs, producing medicine using environmentally friendly methods, enhancing Virginia’s competitiveness across the globe, attracting other suppliers, improving health and wellness, and more.

Amid ‘reshoring’ efforts, central Virginia looks to bolster drug supply strength