Purdue, leaders in AI, pharma manufacturing and public policy gather at D.C. event to launch a national effort to expand AI-enabled medicine production in U.S.

WASHINGTON — Purdue University and a coalition of leaders in AI, pharmaceutical manufacturing and public policy on Wednesday (May 7) launched a national effort in the Dirksen Senate Office Building to onshore pharmaceutical manufacturing in the United States by leveraging cutting-edge AI and advanced manufacturing technologies.

Coalition representatives signed a historic collaborative accord aimed at transforming this nation’s capacity to make critical medicines during a Capitol Hill summit titled “Making Medicines in America: How Congress Can Help America’s AI, Biopharma and Manufacturing Industries Make It Happen.” Led by Purdue, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Technology and Education, the event featured a panel discussion by pharmaceutical and tech industry executives before an audience of their peers, congressional staffers and academic institutions.

“As we stand at the crossroads of artificial intelligence and life sciences, we are witnessing a profound transformation — not just in how we discover new therapies, but also in how we produce and deliver them with unprecedented speed, precision and scale,” said Purdue President Mung Chiang, who moderated the panel discussion. “Through our One Health initiative, research institutes in medicine, and rapidly expanding industry partnership, Purdue is uniquely positioned to help achieve the objectives announced at this summit today. Together with key representation from academia, industry and national policy, we can work to transform how manufacturing is onshored and essential medicines are made in America.”

Speakers at the “Making Medicines in America” event included:

• Andrew Carpenter, Chief Scientific Officer, Phlow
• Mung Chiang, President, Purdue
• Stephen Ezell, VP, Global Innovation Policy, ITIF
• Monique K. Mansoura, Global Health Security & Biotechnology, Strategic Advisor
• Manish Oza, MD, Industry Executive in Health Care and Life Sciences, Google Public Sector
• Elizabeth Topp, Director, Young Institute, Purdue
• William D. Young, Senior Advisor, Blackstone Life Sciences

With keynotes from:

• U.S. Sen. Todd Young, R-Indiana
• Dave Ricks, chair and chief executive officer, Eli Lilly and Company

The U.S. faces a critical dependency on overseas players that is threatened by global supply chains and rapid advances in AI-enabled manufacturing, posing serious risks to national security and the nation’s health care system.

The signed accord lays out a shared vision to reverse that trend, outlining concrete objectives to lower production costs, improve quality control, build a geographically distributed manufacturing base, accelerate regulatory pathways and train a new generation of skilled talent to lead in AI-enabled pharmaceutical innovation.

Dave Ricks, chair and chief executive officer of Eli Lilly and Company, noted that this is a pivotal moment for the pharmaceutical sector and our nation. He encouraged U.S. policymakers to focus on ways to promote free enterprise and unleash American innovation in critical industries, with the aim of strengthening our country’s global competitiveness.

“We are doubling down on investments in innovation, people, and domestic research and manufacturing infrastructure — all to ensure that we can discover and produce a steady supply of high-quality medicines for America and the world,” said Ricks, who delivered a keynote address to end the event. “We have committed $50 billion to U.S manufacturing since 2020, and we look forward to creating thousands of high-wage jobs for Americans who will transform how medicines are made. The future of our industry rests in strong incentives and bold decisions to make life-changing medicines in America.”

“For decades, Google has been revolutionizing how to organize information and make it universally accessible and useful. The tech industry giant is continuing to advance technology by developing AI-powered solutions that transform industries like health care and accelerate scientific discoveries,” said Dr. Manish Oza, industry executive of health care and life sciences at Google Public Sector. “We are excited about the contributions Google can make in applying our expertise to developing the AI-enabled, next-generation medicine manufacturing platforms, all with the goal to improve the quality of life for Americans and help us live longer.”

The timing for this effort couldn’t be more urgent.

“Over and over again, we see the price our nation pays when we are confronted with the uncontrollable impacts of supply chain disruptions because of our reliance on overseas manufacturing,” said U.S. Sen. Todd Young, R-Indiana. “Aside from the economic implications of these risks, these disruptions pose threats to our vital national security, too. This broad-based and comprehensive effort to onshoring critical medicine manufacturing would help address these issues while ensuring the health and well-being of our citizens of this great nation.”

Andrew Carpenter, PhD, chief scientific officer at Phlow, a B-Corp pharmaceutical CDMO in America, hopes that the collaborative commitment made by those signing the accord can help shift the U.S. to a period of manufacturing renaissance, returning essential medicine production to America.

“At Phlow, we recognized early on the critical vulnerabilities in our pharmaceutical supply chain and how we needed to adapt and evolve to capitalize on technologies such as AI and how AI was emerging as potential game changers,” he said. “This coalition’s call is to help the U.S. pharmaceutical industry adapt to these technological shifts and to work with industry partners, university researchers and policymakers to make domestic production economically viable and sustainable for the long term.”

Key for that coalition’s strategic vision is preparing a skilled, AI-enabled workforce to drive American innovation through 2030 and beyond.

“This landmark initiative represents a transformative leap in reshoring pharmaceutical manufacturing by integrating artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing technologies,” said Indra K. Reddy, interim chief operating officer and senior vice president of Texas A&M Health. “Texas A&M is proud to serve as a founding partner in this bold, cross-sector collaboration to strengthen America’s pharmaceutical supply chain.”

Purdue’s leadership in this effort stems from the William D. and Sherry L. Young Institute for the Advanced Manufacturing of Pharmaceuticals and the Young Institute Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Consortium, a collaboration with industry leaders Merck & Co. Inc. and Eli Lilly and Company. The Young Institute is part of the Institutes and Centers at Discovery Park District at Purdue.

The consortium is focused on driving a future where medicines are produced faster, more securely and at lower cost — revolutionizing both the manufacturing processes and the workforce that supports them. In addition, the Purdue-led effort will research and develop new production technologies, autonomous systems, and smart AI and digital technology to accelerate the research of innovative discoveries.

The Purdue-led Making Medicines in America effort also aligns with the university’s One Health initiative, where researchers are tackling complex challenges with real-world impact at the intersection of human, animal and plant health, aimed at improving health outcomes for all living things while driving economic growth regionally and globally.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a public research university leading with excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities in the United States, Purdue discovers, disseminates and deploys knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 107,000 students study at Purdue across multiple campuses, locations and modalities, including more than 58,000 at our main campus in West Lafayette and Indianapolis. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue’s main campus has frozen tuition 14 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap — including its comprehensive urban expansion, the Mitch Daniels School of Business, Purdue Computes and the One Health initiative — at https://www.purdue.edu/president/strategic-initiatives.