Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Upcoming Event

Best Places to Work in Virginia

Hamburger Menu Hamburger Menu

Tag: Civica Inc.

Civica to produce lower-cost insulin

Civica Rx, a nonprofit generic drug-maker with a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant under construction in Petersburg, plans to produce three forms of insulin priced at $30 per vial beginning in early 2024, a project that dovetails with a bill in Congress that would cap consumers’ out-of-pocket insulin costs.

Civica’s 140,000-square-foot, $124.5 million Petersburg production facility will become the Utah-based manufacturer’s North American headquarters when it opens in early 2024. Built to produce medicines for the treatment of COVID-19, the plant also will include space for insulin manufacturing, company representatives said during an April tour. Civica plans to hire up to 250 people for the factory, up from its original plan to hire 186 workers.

“We’ve had a bunch of large donors who are very concerned about diabetes and the cost of insulin come to us and ask us to [manufacture] insulin,” says Civica President and CEO Martin VanTrieste. The $30 insulin vials will cost “about 90% [less] than today’s list price,” he says. “And,” he adds, “as you know, the list price is a price no one pays unless you have no insurance.”

In April, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to cap insulin prices at $35 a month or 25% of an insurance plan’s negotiated price, whichever is lower. According to the Health Care Cost Institute, insulin prices doubled between 2012 and 2016.

In Petersburg, Civica is partnering with Richmond-based Phlow Corp. and Rancho Cordova, California-based AMPAC Fine Chemicals to produce COVID drugs as part of a federal initiative to create a domestic supply chain for critical pharmaceuticals and ingredients. U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine visited the Civica plant, which is halfway completed, in April, participating in a roundtable discussion about drug costs and workforce training initiatives at the region’s universities and colleges.

Kaine supports the $35 out-of-pocket cap on insulin costs and hopes to revive a previous bill he introduced to allow students to use Pell Grant funds to pay for short-term certificate programs in pharmaceutical manufacturing and other vocational studies.

Aside from lowering consumer costs, Kaine says, producing medications domestically will help lighten the nation’s dependence on Chinese drug manufacturers.

“I think most of us feel better about the quality when it’s made here at home,” he says. “You don’t have to assume that China’s a bad actor, [but] in the next pandemic, they are naturally going to prioritize producing pharmaceuticals for their own population.” 

AMPAC expanding Petersburg operation, adding 156 jobs

AMPAC Fine Chemicals plans to grow its Petersburg manufacturing facility, investing $25 million and creating 156 jobs, Gov. Ralph Northam announced Tuesday.

AMPAC manufactures active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and is a partner with Richmond-based Phlow Corp., Virginia Commonwealth University’s Medicines for All Institute and nonprofit drugmaker Civica Inc., on a federally funded, $354 million contract to reduce America’s dependence on foreign supply chains and produce domestic production sources for medications and pharmaceutical ingredients at risk of shortages, including treatments for COVID-19.

Phlow was awarded the four-year contract by the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) in May 2020. This January, Utah-based Civica Inc. announced it would establish its North American manufacturing operation in Petersburg, investing $124.5 million to establish a new facility next to Phlow’s future operation and AMPAC’s existing facility. With Tuesday’s announcement, AMPAC will expand its current plant, where it moved in 2019. Civica’s plant will convert active pharmaceutical ingredients produced by AMPAC and Phlow into vials and syringes to be used in hospitals.

“AMPAC’s investment will further advance the pharmaceutical cluster that has emerged in Petersburg and solidify our commonwealth as a significant player in domestic drug manufacturing,” Northam said in a statement. “This critical partnership between Phlow Corp., Medicines for All Institute, Civica Inc. and AMPAC will have a positive and far-reaching impact, ensuring greater access to high-quality, lifesaving medications while also creating much-needed jobs to support our economic recovery in Virginia.”

AMPAC was founded in 1945 and currently employs 109 people in Virginia, which competed for the project against California and Texas, where AMPAC has two other operations.

“Of our three AMPAC locations, Virginia offers an enabling environment for developing and sustaining the growth in capacity and infrastructure demanded for the pharmaceutical industry,” William DuBay, AMPAC global vice president of research and development, said in a statement. “Our growing relationship with the commonwealth, [the Virginia Economic Development Partnership], the city of Petersburg and others, including VCU, Phlow and Civica, is a cornerstone of our vision for American-based manufacturing of critical pharmaceutical ingredients.”

VEDP worked with the city of Petersburg, Virginia’s Gateway Region, the Community College Workforce Alliance and Dominion Energy Inc. to secure the project, and Northam approved a $640,000 opportunity fund grant and a $250,000 Virginia Investment Performance grant. VEDP’s Virginia Talent Accelerator Program will provide training and recruitment to AMPAC at no cost to the company.