The University of North Carolina Wilmington is part of a $250 million public-private national initiative to bring safe drugs to market faster and educate a new biopharmaceutical workforce. The National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals, based at the University of Delaware, will involve more than 150 companies, educational institutions, nonprofits and government partners.
“This initiative is designed to bring new biotherapeutic drugs to the market by developing and implementing new USA-based manufacturing processes,” said Dan Baden, executive principal of MARBIONC (Marine Biotechnology in North Carolina), a UNCW-based economic development program that promotes discovery and marketing of products and technologies derived from the sea. “At the same time, it will demonstrate the translational value of university research to the public through industry partnership.”
Biopharmaceuticals are prescription drugs made with living cells. UNCW is currently researching the therapeutic properties and potential pharmaceutical applications of microalgae found in the world’s oceans.