Strategic Federal Opportunities

Pharmaceutical Cluster Economic Development

CCAM is proud to be a core partner of the Alliance for Building Better Medicine (ABBM). ABBM is a coalition of public and private sector stakeholders in the Richmond-Petersburg region whose purpose is to build a regional pharmaceutical advanced manufacturing hub. The coalition, along with Governor Glenn Youngkin, recently announced $111 million of investment by federal, state, local, and private supporters to accelerate the development of the Advanced Pharmaceutical and manufacturing Cluster (APC) emerging in Central Virginia. CCAM supported Activation Capital and the APC for the recently awarded $52.9 million US Economic Development Administration’s Build Back Better (BBB) Regional Challenge grant.

CCAM contributes to the ABBM with project management support, and active Board participation, serving on the Governance Committee, the Infrastructure Committee, and the Workforce Development working group, as well as playing a larger role in seeking additional external funding for the APC. In addition, the CCAM team has hosted several VIP visits at its facility, including multiple “site selector” visits hosted by the Richmond and Virginia Gateway Regions’ economic development teams. Including a visiti from Marisa Lago the Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade (pictured).

Marisa Lago (pictured center) is the Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade for the United States of America

CCAM has been a proactive member in seeking additional grant funding for the ABBM.  While the EDA grant had been a great catalyst for the APC, it does not fully cover critical positions and activities required for the ABBM to achieve its goals.  Thus, the APC must seek supplemental funding to address key gaps.  Recently, in conjunction with the ABBM and the Community College Workforce Alliance (CCWA), CCAM led and was awarded a $40k workforce development grant that will be leveraged by the team to execute workforce strategy development.  Additionally, CCAM is a team member for Activation Capital’s ABBM NSF Regional Engines Type 1 proposal, which, if successful, will focus on developing organizational governance and strategy to prepare ABBM for a future Type 2 proposal. CCAM also was recently the lead applicant on behalf of the APC in seeking a coveted EDA Technical Hub designation. If awarded this fall, CCAM would have to opportunity to lead an APC proposal for a stage 2 grant ($50M -$100M) at the end of the year.

It takes a collaborative effort to develop a regional Advanced Pharmaceutical Cluster for the Richmond-Petersburg region. Active in BBB programs project management, board participation, workforce development, economic development activity support and contributing to and leading various large scale proposal efforts, CCAM is a key contributor in striving to build this strategic pharmaceutical advanced manufacturing hub.