Friday, February 7, 2025
2/7/2025
Kansas State University's (K-State) recognized strengths in agriculture and veterinary medicine, animal science, and infectious disease have helped to create a nexus of biosecurity and biodefense research in the northeast Kansas and northwest Missouri region. For example, animal health R&D and manufacturing firms form the well-known Animal Health Corridor, stretching along I-70 from Manhattan, KS in the west to Columbia, MO in the east. K-State's Biosecurity Research Institute, a Biosafety Level 3 research facility is authorized to work with pathogenic agents having pandemic and bioweapon potential such as highly pathogenic avian influenza and with animal pathogens that can cause billions of dollars in economic losses, such as African swine fever virus. K-State researchers working at the BRI and in the College of Veterinary Medicine have developed potential vaccines and therapeutics that have been licensed for commercial development. To better capitalize on the intellectual property developed by our scientists, K-State plans to develop a pilot-scale manufacturing facility that can be used by K-State researchers as well as corporate and private partners to develop pilot-scale production of their discoveries. This is the first step toward commercial-scale production. The proposed Pharma Pilot Plant (PPP) at K-State also will provide early-stage drug discovery companies as well as larger established pharma companies with access to "scale-up" capabilities as they move from bench-scale to commercial-scale production of their pharma products. Such a facility, sometimes called a "biologics development module" or BDM, is an essential step in scaling toward full-scale biomanufacturing and production of vaccines and therapeutics. The Pharma Pilot Plant (PPP) will help to attract companies and jobs to Kansas, as part of K-State's broader suite of biodefense, biosecurity, and biomanufacturing efforts. The facil ity will grow industry-university research and support the manufacturing scale-up of discoveries at K-State, NBAF, and in the private sector. K-State plans to renovate an existing structure, built in 1949, to upfit it into a biomanufacturing training facility and working biomanufacturing facility that can produce vaccines and other biologics for industry. The new facility will meet NIH requirements for BSL-2 containment and be designed and engineered in accordance with all relevant codes, standards, and guides to meet USDA clean room production standards. The facility will be made ADA accessible and have dedicated space for production and training. Sustainable design principles will be followed throughout the project.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).