On Wednesday, the Richard King Mellon Foundation made its largest single-gift donation in history to the University of Pittsburgh — $100 million — to help fund the creation of BioForge, a specialized biomanufacturing facility to be built at Hazelwood Green.
The expected 200,000-square-foot building, which is still in the early-stage planning process, will include operating space for Pitt researchers exploring gene and engineered cell therapy, microneedle and other novel therapeutics and delivery technologies, as well as the development of micro- and nano-antibodies. The facility is also planning to operate under a contract-manufacturer business model that Pitt expects will draw researchers and companies to the region.
Even though the new BioForge is being framed as a biomanufacturing facility for established companies, Pitt claims it will also serve as an incubator of sorts for the region's emerging life sciences startups.
"We would definitely be not only bringing industry partners to create products and manufacture products, but it will be also an opportunity to teach our researchers what the commercial pathway looks like and how products are finally made and get ready for FDA approval," Anantha Shekhar, senior vice chancellor for the health sciences and John and Gertrude Petersen Dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, said. "This would also help us to teach our graduate students and postdoctoral trainees to say what their research career could look like if they were to work in the industry or whether they could become entrepreneurs and I think it would be a great example where we can also bring our business school and pharmacy school and a number of other areas of tech that would actually be a great educational experience for them."
And while those other schools stand to benefit from the creation of BioForge, the university's School of Medicine is ultimately the biggest winner of its creation.
"This is in the sweet spot for us because we have so much research going on in the area; cancer to gene therapy and genetic diseases and genetic targets," Shekhar said. "So the issue would be, how do we take all of that research and create not just startups, which is great, but then how do we mature those startups to actually be able to take their initial investment and actual products that we can bring back to the patients."
Shekhar said BioForge will help to close that gap for startups from the time it takes to launch and execute trials of a product to getting final FDA approval. It'll also serve as a showcase for startups potentially looking to be acquired as they'll be operating in close proximity to pharmaceutical giants that will also someday be under the same roof.
Pitt Chancellor Patrick Gallagher said he expects the site to be built and open within the next five years and called the project "a game-changer for the region."
