James Ferri, Ph.D., has been named Chair-Elect of the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Technology & Education (NIPTE) faculty, highlighting VCU’s position as a front-runner in the advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing space.
NIPTE brings together academic professionals and researchers, industry leaders and informative stakeholders to support the organization’s mission – to improve the way medicines are designed, developed and manufactured to meet the needs of patients in the 21st century.
In 2021, VCU Engineering became a member of NIPTE, alongside seventeen other universities with the highest-ranking pharmaceutical education and research programs in the U.S.
As professor and Associate Chair of the Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering at VCU, Ferri has been integral in facilitating research between VCU and NIPTE. Recently, he has been working with other NIPTE members on an initiative to build a Center of Excellence in Advanced and Continuous Pharmaceutical Manufacturing in the region. With his new position as Chair-Elect, Ferri is focused on supporting a wide-range of emerging initiatives and activities.
Ferri has projects related to pharmaceutical manufacturing supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as well as interfacial phenomena and formulations of disperse systems, supported by NASA and the chemical industry. He was also part of the NIPTE visiting team to the White House in April to propose a plan entitled, ‘Overcoming Global Risk to the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain.’”
Ferri’s research focuses primarily on improving the pharmaceutical supply chain to more efficiently provide active pharmaceutical ingredients.
In light of this accomplishment, Ferri thanked the following people for their continued support.
“It's been a pleasure working with NIPTE leadership and mentors, including Fernando Muzzio, Ph.D., Rutgers University, Vadim Gurvich, Ph.D., University of Minnesota, Rodolfo J. Romañach, Ph.D., Recinto Universitario de Mayaguez, and Peter Wildfong, Ph.D., Duquesne University. I am also grateful for the continuing support of Frank Gupton, Ph.D., and Barbara Boyan, Ph.D., in the VCU College of Engineering,” said Ferri.