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Final Report of the Strategic Planning Process
GO Virginia Whitepaper
Policy Support Recommendations
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.
News
Alliance for Building Better Medicine and CCWA Featured on Spotlight Richmond
SOURCE ABC 8 News by Showcase RichmondAime Carter visits Brightpoint Community College and speaks with Elizabeth Creamer, Community College Workforce Alliance, and Nancy Sévère-Barnett, Brightpoint Community College, about pharmaceutical manufacturing. Watch the...
Alliance for Building Better Medicine Receives NSF Award
SOURCE BioPharm International by Susan HaigneyThe Alliance will receive the NSF Regional Innovation Engines Development Award and $1 million in funding. "The Alliance for Building Better Medicine announced on March 6, 2024 that the US National Science Foundation (NSF)...
Alliance for Building Better Medicine Receives $1M Award
SOURCE Virginia Business by Katherine SchulteRichmond-Petersburg pharma manufacturing coalition continues growth "The Alliance for Building Better Medicine — a group of public and private pharmaceutical manufacturers and research organizations in Richmond and...
Richmond Area’s Drug Building Alliance Gets Extra $1 Million in Federal Funding
SOURCE Richmond Times-Dispatch by Eric Kolenich"The pharmaceutical manufacturing partnership in greater Richmond is getting a $1 million boost in funding. The partnership, called the Alliance for Building Better Medicine, received a National Science Foundation...
Alliance for Building Better Medicine Earns NSF Engines Development Award by the U.S. National Science Foundation
RICHMOND, Va. and PETERSBURG, Va., March. 6, 2024 – 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...
Building Back With Biotech
SOURCERichmond Magazine by Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza"In the last few years, there have been shortages of medications for flu, RSV (especially for infants), COVID-19, drugs for diabetes, chemotherapy and inhalers. It’s a problem that affects all ages and one that’s...
They Took a Job Never Existing in Greater Richmond Before – Building Medicine
SOURCE Richmond Times-Dispatch by Eric Kolenich"In their previous careers, the employees at Civica Inc. worked in banking, automobiles and for the state government. They lived in Hopewell, Hampton and as far away as Dallas. Now they’ve come to a plant in Petersburg to...
A Shot in the Arm
SOURCE Richmond Magazine by Mark NewtonIMAGEIllustration via Adobe Stock"An ongoing effort to develop a domestic pharmaceutical supply chain in metro Richmond earned a special designation in October as an advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing tech hub, which comes...
The Power of Partnership – the Richmond-Petersburg Region secures Designation as TechHub by Biden-Harris Administration and U.S. Department of Commerce
RICHMOND, Va. and PETERSBURG, Va., Oct. 24, 2023 – The Biden-Harris administration, through the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA), announced yesterday that the Richmond-Petersburg MSA (the Region) has been designated as an...
Under Secretary Lago To Visit Central Virginia’s Newest U.S. Government-Incentivized Investments
SOURCE International Trade Administration"In Petersburg, Under Secretary Lago will tour the newly constructed Civica Rx facility, a non-profit generic drug company that will manufacture affordable essential medicines and is a member of the Alliance for Building Better...
Richmond Pharmaceutical Giant Phlow Raises $36 Million
SOURCE Richmond Times-Dispatch by Sean Jones"Richmond pharmaceutical company Phlow Corp. has closed on a $36.1 million fundraising round targeted at growing its research and development capabilities. The funding comes through several undisclosed sources, though Phlow...
Activation Capital Gets $15M From State for Richmond Innovation Center, Medicine Manufacturing Initiative
SOURCE Richmond InnoIMAGE Activation Capital"Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Tuesday announced $66.7 million in grant funding for life sciences projects in the state, including a $15 million tranche for Activation Capital. The Richmond organization, which bills itself...
Downtown Richmond Gets $10 Million Toward New Innovation Building
SOURCE Richmond Times-Dispatch"Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Tuesday that four biotechnology and pharmaceutical manufacturing efforts tied to the University of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University and Virginia Tech will receive $67 million in state funding. The...
Podcast: Can America Make Its Own Medicine Again?
SOURCEAlliance for American Manufacturing"The United States depends on China and India for some of its most critical medicines, but one Central Virginia organization is working to change that. Infused with more than $100 million in public-private funding, including...
Utah-Based Nonprofit Set to Open $140M Insulin Plant in Petersburg
SOURCE Axios Richmond"Petersburg is at the center of a nonprofit’s push to lower sky-high insulin costs. What’s happening: Utah-based Civica Rx is in the final stages of building a $140 million insulin production plant in the city. It’s currently staffing up the...
Good Chemistry
SOURCE Richmond MagazineThe Alliance for Building Better Medicine’s new CEO, Joy Polefrone, discusses her professional journey in chemistry and the challenges and expectations for the alliance and its work "Ongoing efforts to make metro Richmond a locus for the...
Nonprofit Drug Maker to Begin Manufacturing This Year at $140m Petersburg Plant
SOURCE Richmond BizSense by Jack JacobsIMAGE by Civica Rx"A Utah-based nonprofit pharmaceutical manufacturer is gearing up to kick off production at its new Petersburg plant about two years after breaking ground. With construction largely complete on the $140 million...
Radio Segment: This Virginia Town Is Set to Help Fill the Generic Drug Gap
SOURCE WBUR"90% of the medications we take are generic and almost all are made overseas. Now, entrepreneurs are creating businesses in Petersburg, Virginia, to produce essential pharmaceuticals to help ease the generic drug shortage.” Read More
Phlow and Maryland Nonprofit Opening Shared Lab in Richmond
SOURCE Richmond BizSense by Jack JacobsIMAGEby Jack Jacobs"A newly announced pharmaceutical lab facility is expanding a local company’s footprint while introducing a newcomer to the area. Shockoe Slip-based Phlow Corp. and Maryland-based nonprofit U.S. Pharmacopeia...
Phlow Corp., U.S. Pharmacopeia Open Richmond Labs to Develop Pharma Techniques
SOURCE Richmond Times-Dispatch by Sean JonesIMAGEby EVA RUSSO/TIMES-DISPATCH "The Richmond-area partnership that’s been working since 2020 to revolutionize U.S. drug making has reached another milestone with the opening of a new lab space in the city....
Joy Marie Polefrone Lays Out Her Vision for the Alliance for Building Better Medicine
SOURCE The Business Journals by James Shea — Richmond Inno"Joy Marie Polefrone earned a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Virginia and traveled the world as an executive at global health care giant Philips. In 2019, she quit Philips and moved to Richmond...
Alliance for Building Better Medicine Names Joy Polefrone as Executive Director
Joy Polefrone, Ph.D. will Lead the Organization in Its Mission to Create a Reliable Supply of Safe, High-Quality, and Affordable Medicines in the U.S. Richmond/Petersburg, VA, November 15, 2022 – Alliance for Building Better Medicine, a coalition of public and private...
Alliance for Building Better Medicine Hosts U.S. Economic Development Administration and Senator Mark Warner at a Roundtable Discussion about Building a Reliable Supply of Safe, High-Quality, Affordable Medicines
Richmond/Petersburg, VA – Alliance for Building Better Medicine, a coalition powered by multi-jurisdictional public and private sector stakeholders in the Richmond-Petersburg region, was honored to host members of the U.S. Economic Development Administration and...
Walmart Joins the Alliance for Building Better Medicine to Create a Reliable Supply of Safe, High-Quality, and Affordable Medicines
Richmond/Petersburg, VA – Alliance for Building Better Medicine, a coalition powered by multi-jurisdictional public and private sector stakeholders in the Richmond-Petersburg region, is honored to announce that Walmart has joined its mission to create a reliable...
Pharma partnership to get boost with new labs in Richmond, Chesterfield
SOURCE Richmond BizSense by Jack JacobsIMAGE SOURCEJack Jacobs"Two sizable new laboratory buildings tied to a regional effort to manufacture pharmaceuticals are set to rise in Richmond and Chesterfield. Activation Capital is moving forward with pre-pandemic plans for...
Richmond-Petersburg Region, Collaborating as the Alliance for Building Better Medicine, Secures $111 Million Over Three Months for U.S. Based Manufacturing of Essential Medicine
Richmond/Petersburg, VA, September 09, 2022 – Alliance for Building Better Medicine, a coalition of public and private sector stakeholders in the Richmond-Petersburg region, and Governor Glenn Youngkin yesterday honored National Essential Medicine Shortage Awareness...
Governor proclaims ‘Essential Medicine Shortage Awareness Day’
SOURCE The Progress-IndexGov. Glenn Youngkin presented an 'Essential Medicine Shortage Awareness Day' proclamation to the stakeholders in the Petersburg-Richmond pharma cluster.
Civica Inc. to Expand in Greater Richmond-Petersburg Region, Investing $27.8 Million for a New Testing Facility
SOURCE VirginiaBioNonprofit generic drug company to create 51 new jobs at testing and R&D lab in Chesterfield County that will support Petersburg manufacturing operation "RICHMOND, VA – Governor Glenn Youngkin today announced that non-profit Civica Inc. (Civica)...