RICHMOND, Va. β Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly's recent announcement of a $5 billion plant coming to Goochland County surprised many Virginians. But for two Virginia Commonwealth University professors, this development has been years in the making.
VCU is the only university in the country with a doctoral program for pharmaceutical engineering, a fact that positioned it as a natural workforce pipeline for Eli Lilly.
"Partnering with the school of engineering and the school of pharmacy and thinking about how do we create a workforce that's needed to support companies like Lilly is part and partial why we partnered together," Kelechi Ogbonna, the dean of VCU's School of Pharmacy, said.
Both Ogbonna and Frank Gupton, the chair of VCU's Chemical Engineering Department, have been instrumental in developing programs that align with pharmaceutical industry needs.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin highlighted this unique educational advantage during the investment announcement.
"In collaboration with our community colleges to develop a manufacturing degree for pharmaceuticals, and in VCU, we have something very unique in America in that we had PhD program for pharmaceuticals," Youngkin said.
The partnership between VCU's engineering and pharmacy schools began by asking pharmaceutical companies what they needed in future employees.
"What is needed to build the skilled workforce for tomorrow?" Ogbonna said. "And what they described is, we have folks with pharmaceutical backgrounds, we have folks with engineering backgrounds, but wouldn't it be pretty special if we could combine those things in their education, give them real-world experience while they're in their educational programs. So that when they get out, they're ready to hit the ground running."
Eli Lilly's new manufacturing facility will specialize in antibody conjugates β treatments specifically designed to target and destroy cancerous cells. This aligns with research already underway in VCU's chemical engineering school, where Gupton oversees a state-of-the-art lab developing treatments for debilitating diseases.
Across campus, Ogbonna leads the School of Pharmacy's efforts to apply that research in real-world settings, supported by the university's sterile compounding lab β the only one of its kind at a U.S. university.
"We have all of the pieces and parts, the skills, the expertise, tremendous faculty, students that want to learn differently," Ogbonna explained. "But also want to be able to make an impact in a meaningful way."
Ogbonna predicts Virginia will become the "epicenter" for creating similar partnerships.
"Within this small area, we've got a lot of the capabilities to do everything that Lilly is looking to support," Gupton said.
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