B. Frank Gupton, Ph.D.
Floyd D. Gottwald, Jr. Chair in Pharmaceutical Engineering; Chair, Professor, Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering | VCU College of Engineering
Engineering West Hall, Room 403A, Richmond, VA, UNITED STATES
Professor Gupton's research is focused on the development of new technologies that will streamline organic synthesis
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Biography
CEO, co-founder | Medicines for All Institute (M4ALL)
Floyd D. Gottwald Junior Chair of Pharmaceutical Engineering | Virginia Commonwealth University College of Engineering
Chair and Professor | Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering, VCU College of Engineering
B. Frank Gupton, Ph.D., is an internationally recognized scholar and industry expert. After attending the University of Richmond on a basketball scholarship, he received his master’s degree from Georgia Tech. He earned his doctorate in chemistry at Virginia Commonwealth University.
His 31-year industry career included senior positions with the Hoechst-Celanese Corporation and Boehringer-Ingelheim. In 2007, Gupton retired as executive director of process development for Boehringer-Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals.
Gupton then joined the VCU College of Engineering faculty and became the Floyd D. Gottwald Junior Chair in Pharmaceutical Engineering in 2016. His research focuses on improving global health care by making pharmaceutical production cleaner and more cost-effective. To help advance these goals, he founded the Medicines for All Institute (M4ALL) with a simple idea: expand global access to lifesaving medications by producing them more efficiently.
An inventor on multiple patents, including one for his work to produce nanoparticle catalysts supported on graphene, Gupton is a National Academy of Inventors Fellow. He received the Billy R. Martin Award for Innovation in 2017.
For his efforts with M4ALL to develop cost-saving methods to produce the anti-HIV drug nevirapine, he won the 2019 Peter J. Dunn Award from the American Chemical Society (ACS). For that work, he and M4ALL chief technology officer D. Tyler McQuade, Ph.D., also won the 2018 ACS Green Chemistry Challenge Award and the 2018 ACS Award for Affordable Green Chemistry. The institute is working with a manufacturer in South Africa and partnering with the government of Ivory Coast to bring these advances to the places they are most needed.
Industry Expertise (2)
Education/Learning
Research
Areas of Expertise (3)
Cross-Coupling Catalysis
Flow Chemistry / Continual Chemical Processing
Organic Synthesis in Pharmaceutical Applications
Accomplishments (5)
Person of the Year Honoree, Richmond Times-Dispatch
2019
Lifetime Achievement Award, Richmond Joint Engineers Council
2015
American Chemical Society Award for Industrial Innovation
2001
Hoechst Schultheis Fellow
1991
Merle E. Kise Award for Excellence in Industrial Research
1989, 1990
Education (3)
Virginia Commonwealth University: Ph.D., Chemistry
Georgia Institute of Technology: M.S., Biochemistry
University of Richmond: B.S., Chemistry
Affiliations (3)
- American Chemical Society Organic Division : Member
- Flow Chemistry Society : Member
- American Institute of Chemical Engineers : Member
Media Appearances (36)
The Phlow of Things
Richmond Magazine print
2021-02-05
An advanced manufacturing hub is in the works in the south metro Richmond area, built around a multimillion-dollar project to build a national stockpile of essential medicines and to ramp up production of crucial pharmaceuticals and the ingredients from which the finished products are made. Richmond-based corporation Phlow is a focal point of the effort, receiving $354 million in federal money in May 2020. Phlow is working with partners including the Medicines for All Institute at Virginia Commonwealth University, Civica Inc. and AMPAC Fine Chemicals. [Phlow co-founder and CEO of the Medicines for All Institute] Dr. Frank Gupton ran process development at Boehringer Ingelheim [the German pharmaceutical company that operated at the site until 2014], before AMPAC took it over.
Todd P. Haymore column: GO Virginia's vision becoming a reality in central Virginia
Richmond Times-Dispatch print
2021-01-31
Thirteen years ago, VCU recruited Dr. Frank Gupton to grow the department of chemical and life science engineering. He brought with him industry acumen and a dream to engage faculty and students to bring fresh insights to industry challenges. VCU’s recruitment of Gupton and his vision have resulted in the development of new chemistries and engineering methods, the incorporation of best practices from other industries, and the advancement of techniques to make high-quality medicines faster, cheaper and with less environmental impact.
$125M pharmaceutical plant to be built in Petersburg will create 200 jobs
Richmond BizSense online
2021-01-22
Phlow seeks to help establish a national stockpile of drug ingredients for generic drugs, claiming the U.S. currently relies on foreign producers for such ingredients. It’s led by Eric Edwards and Frank Gupton. Edwards founded Shockoe Bottom-based pharma company Kaleo but left the company in 2019, while Gupton is chair of VCU’s College of Engineering and CEO of Medicines For All.
Pharmaceutical Manufacturer Civica Inc. to Create 186 New Jobs in City of Petersburg
Independent Messenger online
2021-01-22
“We believe this important collaboration represents a major milestone towards the realization of our vision for producing 100 percent of all essential medicines in the U.S.,” said Dr. Frank Gupton, Co-Founder of Phlow Corporation, Chair of the Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering at VCU, and CEO of the Medicines for All Institute.
Civica To Create 186 Jobs With New Virginia Pharmaceutical Facility
Business Facilities online
2021-01-22
“We believe this important collaboration represents a major milestone towards the realization of our vision for producing 100 percent of all essential medicines in the U.S.,” said Dr. Frank Gupton, Co-Founder of Phlow Corporation, Chair of the Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering at VCU, and CEO of the Medicines for All Institute. “As a strategic partner in this effort, VCU and the Medicines for All Institute will develop and commercialize innovative chemical process technologies that will improve the lives of every American by ensuring access to affordable medicines that meet or exceed quality standards set by the Food and Drug Administration.”
Small Virginia company gets huge federal medicines contract
AP online
2020-05-20
Phlow’s other co-founder is Frank Gupton, chair of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering and CEO of the Medicines for All Institute, which was founded in 2017 with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Gupton said the goal of the new company is to take a “fresh look” at how the entire drug manufacturing process is done, with starting materials, active ingredients and finished products all made at one site.
Richmond startup awarded $354 million federal contract to make ingredients for COVID-19 drugs
Richmond Times-Dispatch print
2020-05-20
Phlow Corp., led by a doctor trained at Virginia Commonwealth University and working with the Medicines for All Institute at VCU’s College of Engineering, will develop a domestic supply of pharmaceutical ingredients by using advanced manufacturing processes that it says also will lower drug costs. Phlow, based in the Virginia Bio+Tech Park in downtown Richmond, was co-founded by CEO Eric Edwards, who also was a co-founder of Kaléo, another Richmond-based pharmaceutical development company. VCU professor Frank Gupton is Phlow’s other founder.
New Richmond-based pharma startup with $350M in funding eyes facility in Petersburg
Richmond BizSense online
2020-05-20
Frank Gupton, a department chair at VCU’s College of Engineering, and Eric Edwards, co-founder of local pharma company Kaleo, founded Phlow Corp. earlier this year. On Tuesday, Phlow was awarded a four-year, $354 million contract from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The contract has an option to extend to a total value of 10 years and $812 million.
Phlow Corporation awarded $354M to make essential medicines to help prevent drug shortages
WRIC ABC8 News online
2020-05-19
Dr. Frank Gupton is Phlow’s co-founder and head of Medicines for All Institute at VCU. “Manufacturing of these essential drugs has migrated over to China and India over time,” said Gupton. “I think that the COVID-19 epidemic has kinda shown a light on this gap that we got right now and the ability to produce our own drugs.”
Trump admin taps startup to build nation's first stockpile of key drug ingredients
NBC News online
2020-05-19
"We believe this work can revolutionize America's generic drug manufacturing model by enabling Phlow to produce affordable ingredients used to manufacture essential medicines in the U.S.," said Dr. Frank Gupton, co-founder of Phlow, chair of Virginia Commonwealth University's Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering, and CEO of the Medicines for All Institute.
Phlow Corp receives $354M federal contract to make ingredients for COVID-19 drugs
Virginia Bio online
2020-05-19
Phlow is based in the Virginia Bio+Tech Park in downtown Richmond. It was co-founded by CEO Eric Edwards, who also was a co-founder of Kaléo, another Richmond-based pharmaceutical development company. VCU professor Frank Gupton is Phlow’s co-founder.
Trump to Tap New Company to Make Covid-19 Drugs in the U.S.
New York Times print
2020-05-18
Phlow will lead a team of private sector entities that includes Civica Rx, a nonprofit created in 2018 by American hospitals to alleviate drug shortages; Ampac Fine Chemicals, a custom manufacturer of pharmaceutical ingredients; and the Medicines for All Institute, a nonprofit arm of the Virginia Commonwealth University’s College of Engineering that also receives funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Dr. Frank Gupton, the founder and chief executive of Medicines for All, sits on Phlow’s board.
Medicines for All
Next print
2020-02-04
These issues — domestic and international drug shortages and hundreds of millions facing life-threatening diseases — are enormous and complex. Staring down one, let alone all of them, is daunting to say the least. But the mantra of a lab in Richmond at Virginia Commonwealth University perfectly summarizes the way its students, faculty and staff have begun to approach these global challenges. Their creed, “Discovery is seeing what everybody else has seen, and thinking what nobody else has thought,” is an Albert Szent-Györgyi quote often shared by Frank Gupton, Ph.D., the Floyd D. Gottwald Professor and Chair of the Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering in the VCU College of Engineering.
Medicines for Everyone
The Moonshot Catalog online
2020-01-07
In an anteroom of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., where he had been invited to participate on a panel about how a chemical engineering technology called flow chemistry could be used in the pharmaceutical industry, McQuade struck up a conversation with Frank Gupton, who was on the same panel. Although their work had a lot in common, the two had never met before. McQuade was just a decade into his academic career, while Gupton was a pharmaceutical industry veteran, who had recently been recruited out of retirement to lead the chemistry and chemical engineering departments at VCU. Before he retired in 2007, Gupton had led process development for the North American operations of the Germany-based Boehringer Ingelheim Chemicals for 13 years. But he and McQuade hit it off immediately, and in the months after their 15-minute, pre-panel mind-meld, they started chatting on the phone several times a week.
Get to know Frank Gupton, founder/CEO of Medicines for All Institute at VCU
Richmond Times-Dispatch print
2019-12-16
Frank Gupton’s high school report card bears a D in chemistry. Now, he's improving global health care ... through chemistry. Gupton is founder of the Medicines for All Institute at Virginia Commonwealth University, which in 2019 marks its fifth year of operation (and the 10th year since he envisioned it). With more than $40 million in funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Gupton has spearheaded innovation aimed at improving access to lifesaving drugs for patients around the world.
Introducing the 2019 RTD Person of the Year honorees
Richmond Times-Dispatch print
2019-10-14
The RTD Person of the Year program honors servant-leaders and others who strengthen and highlight the Richmond region. Here are our honorees for 2019. 2019 Honoree: Dr. Frank Gupton, Virginia Commonwealth University
Advances in Infectious Disease Research, Diagnosis, and Treatment
Biocompare online
2019-10-11
Many philanthropic organizations, like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, have also invested heavily in infectious disease research and treatment. To date, the organization has committed more than $3 billion to help the almost 40 million people around the globe who have human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Among its partners is Medicines for All (M4ALL), founded in 2014 by Frank Gupton, a former pharmaceutical process development scientist. M4ALL, which operates as a research institute within the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) College of Engineering, is focused on optimizing pharmaceutical manufacturing by developing cost-effective techniques to synthesize active pharmaceutical ingredients as well as designing continuous manufacturing operations.
2018 Green Chemistry Challenge Awards announced
Chemical and Engineering News online
2018-10-15
Meanwhile, Frank Gupton and Tyler McQuade of Virginia Commonwealth University won the Academic Award for their route to nevirapine, a key component of combination drug therapies for HIV.
Remote controlled self-optimising flow synthesis
Chemistry World online
2018-10-08
Organic synthesis expert Frank Gupton of Virginia Commonwealth University in the US believes the research could reduce the waste generated by the pharmaceutical industry in multi-step drug syntheses: ‘What Steve and I have been working on separately is how to get high-yielding reactions that will prevent us from having to do intermediate purifications,’ he says. ‘I think that Steve’s cloud-based machine learning process is going to open a lot of eyes in the pharmaceutical industry about how to do that efficiently without having a longer lead time in drug development.’
VCU steps up in state push for research collaboration with eye for commerce
Richmond Times-Dispatch print
2018-07-06
“It’s about reinventing how drugs are produced in the 21st century,” said B. Frank Gupton, Floyd D. Gottwald Jr. chaired professor and chair of the Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering. “There really isn’t anybody else in the U.S. doing what we’re doing in this area.”
Styrian Scientists Help to Improve Access to Critical Medicines
Pharma Integrates online
2018-01-11
Last summer, Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond, VA (USA), was awarded a $25 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to establish the Medicines for All Institute (M4ALL) and to fund the institute’s work on a wide range of essential global health treatments. With this grant, the institute helps to lower cost and increase access to lifesaving medications for HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and other diseases around the world. B. Frank Gupton, PhD, professor at VCU and leader of the Medicines for All Institute, has previously developed innovative models that reduce the cost of manufacturing HIV/AIDS treatments by accelerating the way the active ingredients in these medications are synthesised. The current award by the foundation will fund the institute’s work on 13 global health drugs during the next 5 years.
SCIENCE STUDIO: Dr. B. Frank Gupton
KTEP radio
2017-11-26
Dr. B. Frank Gupton, Virgina Commonwealth University Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering, shares details on his latest innovative research. He is focused on the development and application of new technologies that will streamline organic synthesis through process intensification. The overall interest is in applying these principals towards the development of new catalyst systems that can be used in concert with continuous chemical processing (flow reactor technology) to streamline the synthesis of pharmaceutical active ingredients (API’s).
VCU receives historic $25 million grant from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Commonwealth Times print
2017-08-29
The internationally recognized Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded VCU’s School of Engineering $25 million dollars to develop a revamped medical institute this week. The Medicines for All Institute will be a new medical facility that will be charged with the task of creating life-saving medicine that is affordable and readily accessible for people all around the world. Some of the medicines that are in the works include vaccines and treatment for HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. This is the second grant, following a $15 million donation from the Gates Foundation distributed over the past three years, to the institute. It is lead by B. Frank Gupton, who serves as the Chair of the Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering. In a press conference held on Aug. 24, Gupton applauded the Gate’s Foundation for investing in the future of the institute. “The funds and the milestones on the grant are not only linked to the drugs that we are optimizing, but in how we create a sustainable organization,” Gupton said. The institute’s goal is to speed up the process of developing certain medications that are used globally without increasing the cost.
Gates Foundation Awards $25 Million to VCU to Expand Access to Drugs
Philanthropy News Digest online
2017-08-28
Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond has announced a $25 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in support of efforts to expand global access to live-saving drugs. The largest grant ever from a private entity to VCU will establish the Medicines for All Institute in the School of Engineering and fund work on a wide range of essential treatments for HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and other diseases. The Gates Foundation has awarded grants totaling nearly $15 million to the Medicines for All program over the last four years, during which researchers developed a model for accelerating the creation of more efficient ways of synthesizing the active ingredients in AIDS drugs, thus lowering their costs. Medicines for All also has worked with the Clinton Health Access Initiative and other partners to transfer the new processes to manufacturers so that more drugs and treatments reach communities in need. B. Frank Gupton, the Floyd D. Gottwald Professor and Chair of the Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering at VCU, said that while grants from the Gates Foundation to date have supported work on a single drug at a time, the latest award will enable researchers to study multiple drugs in parallel. The grant also will fund the institute’s work on an additional thirteen global health treatments over the next five years. "These funds will allow us to bring in additional senior scientists and allow them to equip their labs and staff them immediately," said Gupton. "The funds and the milestones on the grant are not only linked to the drugs that we are optimizing but in how we create a sustainable organization."
VCU “Medicines for All” Project Receives $25 Million from Gates Foundation
Virginia Public Radio radio
2017-08-25
Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond has received the largest private grant in history: 25 million dollars from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The money will support the school’s “Medicines for All” research. Virginia’s Governor was on hand at the announcement. Mallory Noe-Payne reports.
VCU Engineering Receives $25M Gates Foundation Grant
Virginiabio online
2017-08-25
The Virginia Commonwealth University School of Engineering has been awarded a $25 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to establish the Medicines for All Institute and to fund the institute’s work on a wide range of essential global health treatments. With this grant, the institute can help increase access to lifesaving medications for HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and other diseases around the world. B. Frank Gupton, Ph.D., the Floyd D. Gottwald Professor and Chair of the Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering in the VCU School of Engineering, will continue to lead and serve as principal investigator for Medicines for All. Over the past four years, the Gates Foundation has awarded nearly $15 million to Medicines for All. During this time and with this support, Medicines for All has developed an innovative model that reduces the cost of manufacturing AIDS treatments such as nevirapine by accelerating the creation of more efficient ways of synthesizing the active ingredients in the medications. The institute has also worked closely with the Clinton Health Access Initiative and other implementation partners to transfer the new processes to manufacturers so that more medications can reach communities in need. The success of Gupton’s team was evident from the initial grant. For instance, it was able to reduce the cost of nevirapine by more than 10 percent in less than one year. “The Gates Foundation gave us $4.4 million to work on this first target molecule,” Gupton said. “If we reduced the cost 10 percent, then the payback period on the $4.4 million would be about a year. With now sustained savings of more than 10 percent, the payback period has been even shorter.”
VCU "Medicines for All" Project Receives $25 Million from Gates Foundation
WVTF radio
2017-08-25
Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond has received the largest private grant in history: 25 million dollars from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The money will support the school’s “Medicines for All” research. Virginia’s Governor was on hand at the announcement. The Gates Foundation has already given $15 million dollars to the effort, meaning VCU has now received $40 million overall. Virginia’s Governor helped seal the deal back in January. “I’m really proud of this, actually Dr. Gupton and I -- I was part of the pitch, one of the pitches we had, we went out to San Francisco and you would have thought I invented medicine the way I was sitting there, he gave me some great talking points," laughed the Governor during a press conference announcing the grant. The “he” is Frank Gupton. For years, Gupton and a small team have been working on making life-saving drugs at the cheapest cost possible. They targets the active ingredients, refining manufacturing processes. Last year, they developed a new way to make the active ingredient in an HIV drug, lowering costs by 40-percent. The Gates Foundation was so pleased they wanted Gupton to work on more than one drug at a time. “And I said ‘No I can’t do that, there’s only one of me.’ And then they said well what if we were able to give you the funding to be able to recruit additional people to come in and work in parallel with you on other drugs,” says Gupton
VCU receives $25 million from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Virginia Business online
2017-08-25
The Virginia Commonwealth School of Engineering announced Thursday it has received a $25 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to build on its efforts to reduce the costs of lifesaving medications. The grant will build on VCU’s Medicines for All Initiative, which has found ways to drive down the cost of three drugs used to treat HIV patients. The new grant will turn the program into the Medicines for All Institute, allowing it to grow and test multiple medicines at one time. The grant was announced Thursday at event held at the Virginia Biotechnology Research Park, which was attended by Gov. Terry McAuliffe and VCU President Michael Rao. The Medicines for All initiative previously received a total of $15 million from the Gates Foundation to test three drugs. The goal of its first grant of $4.7 million was to reduce the cost of Nevirapine, a drug used to treat and prevent HIV and AIDs, by 10 percent. Researchers, however, were able to reduce the cost of producing the drug by 40 percent. “The concept started with a simple idea to increase access to global health care,” Frank Gupton, chair of the VCU Department of Life Science and Engineering and principal investigator for Medicines for All, said of the program. “We have to use 21st century capabilities to make these drugs and make them affordable to everyone.”
VCU receives $25M grant from Gates - VCU receives $25 million from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to establish new institute, increase access to medicineHide Details
Richmond Times Dispatch print
2017-08-25
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Engineering $25 million to create the Medicines for All Institute, a program that will seek ways to make life-saving medications less costly and more available worldwide. The grant - which is the largest the university has ever received from a private entity - was announced Thursday at an event held at the Biotechnology Research Park's Biotech Eight building on North Fifth Street, where the institute has set up a 30,000-square-foot space. Frank Gupton - chair of the Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering at the School of Engineering - will lead the institute as it seeks ways to make medications to treat HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and other diseases more accessible by reducing the manufacturing cost. "These are medicines for the most part that are either in the forms of generics or would-be generics," said Barbara D. Boyan, dean of the School of Engineering. "The costs of these medicines has not risen to a great extent, but to many people in the world they're still too expensive and just too difficult to have access to." Gupton and his team have received several smaller grants from the Gates Foundation over the past three years, using those funds to make manufacturing less costly over an 18-month period for one drug at a time. "We had to prove ourselves," Gupton said. "We went through a pretty rigorous proof of concept period for about three years where they gave us one drug after another to work on. If we didn't succeed, that check wouldn't have been written."
VCU awarded $25M grant, launches online MBA
Richmond BizSense online
2017-08-25
On the first day of classes for the fall semester, administrators announced the VCU School of Engineering has been awarded a $25 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – the largest grant in the engineering school’s history and the university’s second-largest. The grant will be used to further establish the school’s Medicines for All Institute, formed in 2014 to reduce costs of manufacturing pharmaceutical products and increase global access to medications. The institute is led by Frank Gupton, professor and chairman of the school’s department of chemical and life science engineering. Gupton was among several speakers at Thursday’s announcement, including Gov. Terry McAuliffe, VCU President Michael Rao and Barbara Boyan, dean of the school. “I think everyone understands the challenge that we’re faced with as far as addressing this issue of access to affordable healthcare,” Gupton said. “We’re not just here to solve healthcare problems,” he said. “We’re here to train the scientists of the 21st century.”
Point-of-Care Technologies: Pharmacy on Demand
VASEM Report print
2017-06-14
Ling noted that one of the applications he is particularly excited about is providing anti-retroviral therapies for Africans with HIV, a project he is exploring with colleagues at Virginia Commonwealth University. “The drugs could be delivered by drone to patients,” he said. The VCU team, led by Frank Gupton, chair of Chemical and Life Science Engineering, has been funded by the NSF, DARPA and the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation to develop flow chemistry methods that can reduce the cost of the ingredients for drugs needed to treat critical diseases like HIV, tuberculosis, and cancer.
VCU receives $5 million Gates grant to find more cost-effective way to make HIV/AIDS drug
Richmond Times-Dispatch print
2017-01-01
The School of Engineering received about $5 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to create a more cost-effective way to manufacture Dolutegravir. It is the third such grant the foundation has awarded the school. The lead investigator, B. Frank Gupton, professor and chair in the VCU Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering, said the drug is likely to become a first-line therapy for HIV/AIDS.
With New Funding, VCU Professor Continues Research to Lower the Cost of Drugs
WVTF / RadioIQ (NPR Affiliate) radio
2016-12-20
Frank Gupton used to work for a major pharmaceutical company, so he knows the ins and outs of making drugs. That means he also knows how, often, many drugs that were invented decades ago, could be created for far cheaper today. Gupton says you’d think manufacturer’s would take a look at that, but they don’t.
What I Found Enlightening About ISPE's Annual Meeting
Life Science Leader online
2016-10-16
In his “second career,” professor Gupton has given TED talks and received grants totaling nearly $10 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The title of his talk was “Streamlining Pharmaceutical Processes: The ‘Medicines For All Initiative,’ a multidisciplinary project he is leading that seeks cheaper and more efficient ways to manufacture drugs.Gupton noted how the cost structure between a generic and patented drug is quite dramatic.
From mapping brains to modeling diseases
Virginia Business
2015-08-28
B. Frank Gupton, chair of the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Engineering’s Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering, is one of the state’s key innovators. He served on McAuliffe’s biosciences technology roundtable last year and recently helped form the Virginia Drug Development Consortium, a collaboration involving VCU, the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech. “We’re trying to take the innovations that are occurring at the different universities in drug discovery [and] move them down the pipeline and increase the intellectual property value of them,” he explains...
AIDS Drug Nevirapine's Cost Reduced By Researchers
HNGN
2015-01-08
"We completed the first phase and we've gotten the chemistry to where it's probably the lowest-cost process you could imagine, using really cheap, inexpensive raw materials and streamlining the chemistry for the process," lead researcher B. Frank Gupton said in the study. "We've reported our results to the Gates Foundation and I believe that they were very pleased with our progress." ...
Event Appearances (5)
Streamlining Pharmaceutical Processes,
University of Richmond, Richmond, VA.
2015-10-02
The Medicines for All Initiative
SelectBio Flow Chemistry Congress San Diego, CA.
2015-09-15
A New Approach in Pharmaceutical Process Development
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Blacksburg, VA.
2015-09-04
A New Low Cost Approach for the Production of AIDS Drugs
University of Mainz Mainz, Germany
2015-03-20
The Medicines for All Initiative
CPAC Annual Meeting Rome, Italy
2015-03-24
Patents (3)
Production of graphene and nanoparticle catalysts supported on graphene using microwave radiation.
WO2011119961A2
2011
Production of Gupton_CV: 5/11 graphene and nanoparticle catalysts supported on graphene using microwave radiation
WO2011119961A2.
2011
Improved process for preparation of 5,11-dihydro-11-ethyl-5-methyl-8-{2-{(1-oxido-4-quinolinyl)oxy}ethyl}-6H-di pyrido[3,2- b:2',3'-e][1,4]diazepin-6-one used as HIV-RT inhibitor
US20070129542A1
2007
Research Grants (5)
Collaborative Research Planning Grant: I/UCRC Center for Rational Catalyst Synthesis
National Science Foundation $11,500
April 2014 – Feb. 2015
Development of Asymmetric Heterogeneous Hydrogenation Catalysts
Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. $50,000
June 2013 - Aug. 2014
Development of Reaction Conditions for Conversion of Artemisinic Acid to Dihydroartemisinic Acid
Clinton Health Access Initiative $24,000
May 2013 – Oct. 2014
Third Generation Nevirapine Process
Clinton Health Access Initiative
May 2012 – March 2013
High Throughput Continuous Synthesis of Strategic Anti- HIV Drug Substances
VCU Presidential Research Incentive Program Award $40,000
Jan. 2010 - Dec. 2010
Selected Articles (5)
Highly efficient and magnetically recyclable graphene-supported Pd/Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticle catalysts for Suzuki and Heck cross-coupling reactions
Applied Catalysis A: General2015 Herein, we report a facile and efficient one-step method for the synthesis of highly active, Pd/Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles supported on graphene nanosheets (Pd/Fe 3 O 4/G) that exhibit excellent catalytic activity for Suzuki and Heck coupling reactions and that can be ...
Selective N-Chelation-Directed C–H Activation Reactions Catalyzed by Pd (II) Nanoparticles Supported on Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes
Organic letters2015 N-Chelation-directed C–H activation reactions that utilize the Pd (II)/Pd (IV) catalytic cycle have been previously reported. To date, these reactions employ only homogeneous palladium catalysts. The first use of a solid-supported Pd (II) catalyst [Pd (II) nanoparticles ...
The continuous synthesis and application of graphene supported palladium nanoparticles: a highly effective catalyst for Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reactions
Green Processing and Synthesis2015 An efficient, sustainable, and continuous method for the preparation of graphene supported palladium nanoparticles (Pd/G) has been developed using microwave irradiation as a heating source for the metal deposition process. The Pd/G produced from this method ...
Microwave-assisted synthesis of Pd nanoparticles supported on Fe3O4, Co3O4, and Ni (OH) 2 nanoplates and catalysis application for CO oxidation
Journal of Nanoparticle Research2014 In this paper, we report a simple, versatile, and rapid method for the synthesis of Pd nanoparticle catalysts supported on Fe 3 O 4, Co 3 O 4, and Ni (OH) 2 nanoplates via microwave irradiation. The important advantage of microwave dielectric heating over ...
Palladium nanoparticles supported on carbon nanotubes from solventless preparations: versatile catalysts for ligand-free Suzuki cross coupling reactions
Journal of Materials Chemistry2013 Palladium nanoparticles supported on single-or multi-walled carbon nanotubes (Pd/SWCNT and Pd/MWCNT) were prepared by a rapid, solventless method that does not require reducing agents or electric current. The method involves a straightforward process using ...
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