"PHARMING" VIRGINIA - Frank Gupton - Medicines 4 All

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Our October speaker was “happily retired” when he launched a second career that has helped transform where and how drugs are made, reduced manufacturing costs for critical medicines, and helped position Central Virginia as one of the fastest-growing life-science manufacturing hubs in the country. 

Five years ago, Frank Gupton spoke to Encorepreneur! about the lack of pharmaceutical manufacturing capability and the cost of manufacturing in the United States. At the time there were virtually no large-scale pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities in Virginia. Since then, more than $10 billion in investment has been announced by three of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies — AstraZeneca in Charlottesville, Eli Lilly in West Creek, and Novo Nordisk in Petersburg.

In 2016, Frank co-founded the Medicines for All Institute (M4ALL) at VCU, with the mission to reimagine pharmaceutical process development — using continuous manufacturing and simplified synthesis routes to make drugs faster, cheaper, and with less waste. The Institute has received more than $40 million in funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop lower-cost methods for producing high-volume medicines for use both in the U.S. and in developing countries.

In 2020, he co-founded Phlow Corporation, a public benefit corporation dedicated to ensuring that “every American has access to the essential medicines necessary to sustain life and conquer disease.” Phlow is rebuilding and modernizing drug manufacturing processes and bringing essential medicine production back to the U.S.

Frank is Chair of the Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering in the VCU College of Engineering and continues to lead the Medicines for All Institute.

A Richmond native, Frank attended the University of Richmond on a basketball scholarship, earned his master’s degree from Georgia Tech, and his Ph.D. in chemistry from VCU. His 31-year industry career included senior positions with Hoechst-Celanese Corporation and Boehringer-Ingelheim.

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