Virginia Commonwealth University is pursuing the acquisition of the Altria Center for Research and Technology, a 450,000-sq.-foot facility adjoining to VCU’s educational medical heart campus that will assist meet Virginia’s rising demand for well being care employees by offering state-of-the-art analysis and educational house.
The 9-story facility, positioned at 601 E. Jackson St. in Richmond, consists of superior analysis labs, a vivarium and educational house at a fraction of the value to construct new. VCU is in search of the help of the commonwealth to amass the property.
Acquiring the facility can be 5 to 9 years sooner and one-third the value of new building, in response to Meredith Weiss, Ph.D., senior vice chairman for finance and administration and chief monetary officer at VCU.
The Altria heart would offer a major quantity of analysis house, which is essential for the supply of new medication, pharmaceutical developments and breakthroughs in illness prevention and therapies. This state-of-the-art house will probably be important to attracting the easiest researchers, in addition to biomedical and pharmaceutical firms, to Virginia.
VCU’s potential acquisition of the heart would:
- Attract prime expertise and strengthen Richmond as a world vacation spot of selection for pharmaceutical improvements, as evidenced by recent industry expansions in Virginia.
- Provide the state-of-the-art analysis house required to keep up Massey’s complete designation from the National Cancer Institute, enabling Massey to launch lifesaving scientific trials and appeal to the finest medical doctors and researchers to Virginia.
- Grow enrollment in VCU’s new School of Public Health and School of Pharmacy, which is persistently ranked amongst the prime 20 pharmacy faculties in the United States.
“As a top 50 public research institution surpassing $560 million in sponsored research funding, a comprehensive cancer center needing to deliver additional research space to meet NCI commitments, and an engine for meeting Virginia’s growing demand for health care workers, purchasing this exceptional facility is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet critical needs urgently and economically,” Weiss stated.
Purchase of the facility would straight advance VCU’s globally impactful analysis efforts, together with the speedy discovery and supply of Massey’s lifesaving therapies and trials; transformative pharmaceutical drug improvement and manufacturing; life-altering breakthroughs in liver, metabolic and power illness; and VCU’s nationally acknowledged work in psychological well being and habit.
“As a university-based health system, we embrace research and education to improve the health of people in our communities and across the world,” stated Marlon Levy, M.D., senior vice chairman for VCU Health Sciences and CEO of VCU Health. “This building, conveniently located near VCU Medical Center, enables us to reimagine our clinical campus space by expanding our capacity to uncover new lifesaving treatments and equip health professionals with the training and skills to improve the lives of generations to come.”
Adding trendy lab house is particularly essential for VCU’s Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center, stated Robert A. Winn, M.D., Massey director and Lipman Chair in Oncology.
“This incredible facility delivers critical and required space to maintain Massey’s comprehensive status — the highest recognition from the NCI,” Winn stated. “Massey’s groundbreaking research has more than doubled in the past five years, and advancing this tremendous momentum requires cutting-edge lab facilities poised to rapidly translate discoveries into lifesaving therapies.”
Massey is one of two NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers in Virginia, a designation that makes it eligible for federal funding, data-sharing and sources reserved for the most elite establishments that show superior analysis capabilities. To keep its designation, Massey must establish 50,000 sq. toes of extra trendy analysis house.
The Altria heart would additionally present educational house for VCU’s School of Pharmacy and School of Public Health.
The School of Pharmacy is persistently ranked amongst the prime 20 pharmacy faculties in the United States, launching hundreds of well being sciences careers. Currently unfold throughout a number of buildings, the faculty offers college students with a curriculum centered on bettering affected person care by way of pharmaceutical analysis and state-of-the-art follow, and it presents bachelor’s, grasp’s, doctoral and postgraduate applications, together with a Pharmacy Technician Training Program. It is the solely faculty in the United States with a Ph.D. program in pharmaceutical engineering.
“We cannot train students to fill gaps in Virginia’s burgeoning pharmaceutical industry workforce or pursue breakthroughs in disease prevention and treatment in old buildings that were never meant for modern, transdisciplinary teaching and research,” stated Kelechi “K.C.” Ogbonna, Pharm.D., dean of the VCU School of Pharmacy. “We need new facilities to attract new pharmaceutical partnerships and prepare the workforce.”
Monica Swahn, Ph.D., dean of the VCU School of Public Health — which was established in July 2023, bringing the departments of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, Health Policy, and Social and Behavioral Sciences collectively beneath a unified concentrate on public and inhabitants well being — stated that with the launch of new applications, present educational house is anticipated to be at capability and the Altria heart would assist advance the faculty’s mission to enhance well being, effectively-being and longevity for all populations by way of training, discovery, dissemination and co-studying with the communities VCU serves.
“The proximity of this facility to VCU Health System and VCU’s health sciences programs – medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, health professions – provides an unparalleled opportunity to catalyze the VCU School of Public Health’s impact by bringing multiple disciplines together to address the most pressing public health challenges of our time,” Swahn stated.
Arturo P. Saavedra, M.D., Ph.D., dean of the VCU School of Medicine, stated VCU’s potential acquisition of the Altria constructing is “an opportunity to honor our commitment to healthy communities.”
“The Altria building is necessary to honor our commitment to healthy communities. This strategically located facility in the heart of Richmond and proximal to VCU’s centralized health sciences hub will provide a critical platform for research growth and discovery, and drive the economic engine of our mission to achieve its most important goal — saving lives,” he stated.
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