Governor Ralph Northam announced that AMPAC Fine Chemicals (AFC) will invest $25 million to expand its existing operation on North Normandy Drive in the City of Petersburg.
Virginia successfully competed with California and Texas for the project, which will create 156 new jobs.
AMPAC Fine Chemicals is a major collaborator in the new U.S. government-funded partnership with Phlow Corporation, Medicines for All Institute, and non-profit drugmaker Civica Inc. Through this partnership, Phlow executed a $354 million contract with the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to produce essential medications using advanced manufacturing processes from the Medicines for All Institute based at the College of Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU).
As part of this initiative, AFC will expand the former Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) chemical plant, purchased in 2016, and in operation since 2019. In January, Governor Northam announced that Civica Inc. would invest $124.5 million to establish a new facility adjacent to Phlow’s future operation and AMPAC’s existing facility. The Civica plant will convert active pharmaceutical ingredients from AMPAC and Phlow into vials and syringes of finished medications for use in hospitals.
Founded in 1945, AMPAC has fully cGMP compliant facilities located in California, Texas, and Virginia that specialize in process development, scale-up, and production from kilograms to multi-ton quantities. The company currently employs 109 in Virginia.
Governor Northam approved a $640,000 grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund to assist the City of Petersburg with the project. The Governor also approved a $250,000 Virginia Investment Performance Grant, a performance-based incentive that encourages continued capital investment by existing Virginia companies. The company is eligible to receive benefits from the Major Business Facility Job Tax Credit for new, full-time jobs created. ■