Phlow Corp. is working on a $25 million fundraising round following the company’s start of medicine ingredients manufacturing operations in Petersburg. (Images courtesy Phlow Corp.)
A company involved in making the Richmond region a hub for pharmaceutical manufacturing is in fundraising mode after it began operations at a Petersburg production facility last year.
Phlow Corp. is underway on a drive to raise $25 million from investors, according to a recent notice filed with the SEC.
The raise comes as the Alliance for Building Better Medicine, a regional group of which Phlow is affiliated and that is working on the regional pharma push, was recently passed over for a sizable round of federal grant money.
As for Phlow’s own capital raise, the company had already secured $5 million toward its $25 million goal as of last week, according to the SEC filing. How Phlow intends to use the capital raise was unclear. The company declined to comment on the raise.
Phlow, which has a goal to establish a larger and more reliable domestic-based supply of medicines and pharmaceutical ingredients, kicked off production at facilities located at 2818 N. Normandy Drive in Petersburg in late 2023. The company also operates a research laboratory at 506 E. Jackson St. in Richmond.
In March 2023, Phlow closed on a $36 million capital raise. As of early last year, the company had raised about $56 million through investors. Phlow secured a four-year $354 million contract from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2020, the same year the firm was founded by CEO Eric Edwards and Frank Gupton. The contract is now in its first of six one-year renewal options following the initial four-year phase. The agreement would be worth $812 million if it completed the entire 10-year period.
Meanwhile, the Alliance for Building Better Medicine failed to get a slice of a $504 million grant funding round from the federal government.
The Alliance had applied for a grant through the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s Tech Hubs program, which is a federal funding initiative designed to support regional-scale economic development projects across the country.
The USEDA earlier this month announced awards of between $19 million and $51 million to 12 applicants. Richmond Inno first reported that the Alliance didn’t receive funding from the program.
The Alliance had intended to use the grant funds for infrastructure improvements on its campus in Petersburg, where Phlow and AMPAC Fine Chemicals have facilities, as well as creation of a training facility at nonprofit drugmaker Civica’s lab facility that’s under construction at Meadowville Technology Park in Chesterfield.
Joy Polefrone, a consultant to the Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing, a Prince George-based public-private economic development organization that is part of the alliance and spearheaded the Tech Hubs grant application process, said the group intends to continue to seek new funding opportunities. She said there have been meetings about next moves since the federal EDA’s decision not to provide funding.
Polefrone declined to comment on the amount that the local Building Better Medicine group applied for under the Tech Hubs program, which was only open to 31 Tech Hubs that were designated as such by the Biden administration late last year. Polefrone said the Building Better Medicine project remains in a good position for future funding awards.
Polefrone was formerly the alliance’s executive director, a role she left in December about a year in the job.
While the alliance was unsuccessful this time around, the group announced earlier this year it was awarded a $1 million grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation. In 2022, the alliance was awarded $52 million in federal funding through the Build Back Better Regional Challenge, an initiative of the American Rescue Plan.
Also among the alliance’s members are the cities of Richmond and Petersburg, the Greater Richmond Partnership, VSU, VCU Engineering School and Activation Capital, which recently saw the departure of its CEO Chandra Briggman.
Phlow Corp. is working on a $25 million fundraising round following the company’s start of medicine ingredients manufacturing operations in Petersburg. (Images courtesy Phlow Corp.)
A company involved in making the Richmond region a hub for pharmaceutical manufacturing is in fundraising mode after it began operations at a Petersburg production facility last year.
Phlow Corp. is underway on a drive to raise $25 million from investors, according to a recent notice filed with the SEC.
The raise comes as the Alliance for Building Better Medicine, a regional group of which Phlow is affiliated and that is working on the regional pharma push, was recently passed over for a sizable round of federal grant money.
As for Phlow’s own capital raise, the company had already secured $5 million toward its $25 million goal as of last week, according to the SEC filing. How Phlow intends to use the capital raise was unclear. The company declined to comment on the raise.
Phlow, which has a goal to establish a larger and more reliable domestic-based supply of medicines and pharmaceutical ingredients, kicked off production at facilities located at 2818 N. Normandy Drive in Petersburg in late 2023. The company also operates a research laboratory at 506 E. Jackson St. in Richmond.
In March 2023, Phlow closed on a $36 million capital raise. As of early last year, the company had raised about $56 million through investors. Phlow secured a four-year $354 million contract from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2020, the same year the firm was founded by CEO Eric Edwards and Frank Gupton. The contract is now in its first of six one-year renewal options following the initial four-year phase. The agreement would be worth $812 million if it completed the entire 10-year period.
Meanwhile, the Alliance for Building Better Medicine failed to get a slice of a $504 million grant funding round from the federal government.
The Alliance had applied for a grant through the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s Tech Hubs program, which is a federal funding initiative designed to support regional-scale economic development projects across the country.
The USEDA earlier this month announced awards of between $19 million and $51 million to 12 applicants. Richmond Inno first reported that the Alliance didn’t receive funding from the program.
The Alliance had intended to use the grant funds for infrastructure improvements on its campus in Petersburg, where Phlow and AMPAC Fine Chemicals have facilities, as well as creation of a training facility at nonprofit drugmaker Civica’s lab facility that’s under construction at Meadowville Technology Park in Chesterfield.
Joy Polefrone, a consultant to the Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing, a Prince George-based public-private economic development organization that is part of the alliance and spearheaded the Tech Hubs grant application process, said the group intends to continue to seek new funding opportunities. She said there have been meetings about next moves since the federal EDA’s decision not to provide funding.
Polefrone declined to comment on the amount that the local Building Better Medicine group applied for under the Tech Hubs program, which was only open to 31 Tech Hubs that were designated as such by the Biden administration late last year. Polefrone said the Building Better Medicine project remains in a good position for future funding awards.
Polefrone was formerly the alliance’s executive director, a role she left in December about a year in the job.
While the alliance was unsuccessful this time around, the group announced earlier this year it was awarded a $1 million grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation. In 2022, the alliance was awarded $52 million in federal funding through the Build Back Better Regional Challenge, an initiative of the American Rescue Plan.
Also among the alliance’s members are the cities of Richmond and Petersburg, the Greater Richmond Partnership, VSU, VCU Engineering School and Activation Capital, which recently saw the departure of its CEO Chandra Briggman.