Mission Statement
The Medicines for All Institute (M4ALL), based at Virginia Commonwealth University's College of Engineering in Richmond, Virginia, is committed to improving access to high-quality medications across the globe by driving down production costs. M4ALL optimizes active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) production and provides access to manufacturers around the world to enhance the security of medicine supply chains. M4ALL was founded in 2017 with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Reinventing the Medicine Supply Chain
M4ALL’s manufacturing optimization process has the potential to significantly impact the pharmaceutical supply chain. For the generic drug marketplace, tight margins and high barriers to entry deter new competitors. This is especially true for manufacturers of global health treatments, where margins are typically even more constrained. M4ALL strives to reduce costs, increase efficiencies, and provide technical innovation, giving several competitive advantages in an already challenging marketplace. Additionally, M4ALL’s green chemistry and reduced waste generation cuts manufacturing costs and helps meet the standard of government regulations. This methodology also can be applied to brand, or in development treatments where there may be significant opportunities to reduce costs and where improving accessibility is critically important. These significant economic and environmental benefits together can lower global health costs and expand patient access, while reducing manufacturing costs and waste.
Train the Next Generation
As a research-related institute within a university, M4ALL strives to educate and train the next generation of chemists and engineers by imparting the principles and foundations of innovative modeling that will lead to affordable, high-quality medicines. This approach allows our students to design processes with immediate impact on global health and to expand the workforce. M4ALL is currently engaged in partnerships with research institutes and manufacturers in other countries to equip research scientists with the skills and expertise needed to build capabilities to produce medicines in their countries. This would lead to reduced dependence on a few manufacturers around the world and empower a country or region to be self-sufficient in providing high quality health care to its own people.