DARPA's Role in Bringing Manufacturing Back to the US

Additive manufacturing allows pharma and biotech companies to take advantage of 3D printing technology to produce medications in a variety of dosages while achieving reliably consistent results. A major benefit of the process is the speed in which its able to produce a prototype and then shift to broad manufacturing.

Aprecia Pharmaceuticals is one of the key manufacturers using this technology. Aside from this, the company is also a 100% US-based manufacturer, which provides them with a unique benefit in the current ecosystem.

In April of this year, President Trump announced 100% tariffs on imported branded medications (with exceptions made for specific countries that negotiated their own tariff agreements). This is part of an ongoing push from President Trump to bring manufacturing back to the United States across all industries, including the pharma industry.

Kyle Smith, president and chief operating officer at Aprecia, spoke with Pharmaceutical Executive about the company’s additive manufacturing process as well as the benefits and challenges of 100% US-based manufacturing.

Pharmaceutical Executive: How is DARPA helping to bring additive manufacturing to US shores?
Kyle Smith: EQUIP-A-Pharma is run through DARPA, and now ASPR is really the partner that we're moving into partnership with on that program. What they're trying to do is encourage rapid manufacturing platforms to be developed in the United States for the manufacturing of APIs and the manufacturing of finished dosage forms.

There's a focus on finding the right key starting materials and developing these processes and submitting AMDAs to get these products approved for products around the drug shortage list to start, because there's obviously several products that are coming from overseas, and whether it be tariffs, whether it be international affairs, or whether it be market conditions forcing some products to go on the shortage list, that obviously can have do harm to patients in the United States.

They want to make sure we've got more control over that supply chain, so DARPA and the federal government are really incentivizing companies with investment to bring manufacturing back to the United States.