Last week, FDA awarded a grant to the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Technology and Education (NIPTE) to improve drug development and manufacturing. The grant could be worth as much as $35 million over the next five years. Using the grant, NIPTE will conduct research in various areas, including methods for reducing time to market, enabling new performance attributes in drugs, improving small-batch production, and promoting continuous manufacturing.
The FDA-funded projects are intended to improve the science and technology for drug development and manufacturing. The goals include reversing the trend of pharmaceutical outsourcing by decreasing the cost of manufacture and improving drug quality and safety. The research is also intended to help reduce healthcare costs, create jobs, and help improve the country’s manufacturing competitiveness.
“Over the last several years, NIPTE has contributed a great deal of research toward our understanding of quality pharmaceutical manufacturing,” said Helen N. Winkle, director of FDA’s Office of Pharmaceutical Sciences, in a NIPTE press release. “Progress in this area will mean safer, more efficient, and less costly drug production here in the US, and we are looking forward to NIPTE’s findings.”