$70 Million Awarded to New Biopharmaceuticals Institute

The National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals (NIIMBL) becomes the eleventh institute in the Manufacturing USA network, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker announced last week. The $70 million award marks the first institute with a focus area proposed by industry and the first funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC). The institute will focus on the complex manufacturing process used to produce treatments for conditions such as cancer, autoimmune disorders and infectious diseases and also seeks to develop manufacturing capabilities for a quick response to pandemics and other biological threats. Each of the institutes has a unique technological concentration and is designed to accelerate U.S. advanced manufacturing as a whole.

The University of Delaware will coordinate the institute in partnership with DOC’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). In addition to the newly awarded $70 million in federal funding, at least $129 million has been pledged to support the institute by a consortium of 150 companies, educational institutions, research centers, coordinating bodies, non-profits and Manufacturing Extension Partnership centers across the country. A new non-profit organization called USA Bio LLC is to administer the cooperative agreement with NIST.