Research Park News

December 13, 2016

Pharmaceutical leader and Purdue alumnus brings expertise to Purdue-based contract drug manufacturing organization

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue University alumnus Allen Chao, who co-founded Watson Pharmaceuticals in 1983 and has had a long distinguished career in pharmaceutical research and development, is bringing his expertise to the Purdue GMP Center LLC in the Purdue Research Park of West Lafayette.

Chao, his son Michael Chao and business leader Alfonso Chang will oversee the contract drug manufacturing facility. The center also will now operate under its incorporated name of Purdue GMP Center after doing business for the past 11 years under the name the Chao Center for Industrial Pharmacy and Contract Manufacturing.

The Purdue GMP Center (PGC) is a contract manufacturing organization focused on providing pharmaceutical based solutions that involve formulation development, clinical-scale cGMP manufacturing and small-scale commercial cGMP manufacturing to clients.      

"We have supported the Purdue GMP Center since its opening and know there is a strong market for contract drug manufacturing that the Purdue GMP Center can provide," Allen Chao said. "Our goal is to fully utilize the Purdue GMP Center for other pharmaceutical lines and facilitate a wonderful growth opportunity for the center by expanding into compound development.”

The Purdue GMP Center opened in 2005 through a $5 million gift from Chao and his wife, Lee-Hwa Chao, who also is a Purdue graduate.

The center has seven multiuse manufacturing suites situated along a clean corridor. All the suites are designed to accommodate different types of equipment and production needs. There are two suites that can accommodate production activities requiring the use of organic solvents. The center will continue to manufacture and distribute Cycloserine Capsules USP, a global drug developed by Eli Lilly and Co. used to treat multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.

Allen and Lee-Hwa Chao are actively involved with Purdue. In 1995 Allen Chao was named a Purdue College of Pharmacy Distinguished Alumni and in 2000 he received an honorary doctorate from the college.

About Watson Pharmaceuticals

Allen Chao co-founded Watson Pharmaceuticals in Illinois and relocated the company to Southern California that same year. Watson Pharmaceuticals began trading on the NYSE in 1997. The company changed its name to Actavis Generics after acquiring Activis Group in 2012. Actavic Generics was acquired by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries LTD in August 2016.

About Purdue Research Park

The Purdue Research Park is the largest university-affiliated business incubation complex in the country. The Purdue Research Park manages the Purdue Technology Centers in four sites in Indiana located in West Lafayette, Indianapolis, Merrillville and New Albany. The more than 260 companies located in the park network employ about 4,500 people who earn an average annual wage of $63,000. The park is managed by the Purdue Research Foundation, which received the 2014 Incubator Network of the Year by the National Business Incubation Association for its work in entrepreneurship. For more information about funding and investment opportunities in startups based on a Purdue innovation, contact the Purdue Foundry at foundry@prf.org.

About the Purdue GMC Center

Established in 2005, Purdue GMP Center is a leading contract manufacturing organization focused on providing solutions to clients that involve the production of small-volume, non-sterile pharmaceutical products. These solutions include formulation development, clinical-scale cGMP manufacturing and small-scale commercial cGMP manufacturing to clients PGC and  our highly educated and experienced staff collaborate to support innovation, solve formulation problems, tackle manufacturing challenges, improve operational efficiency, and address the production needs of our clients, whether for clinical trials or commercialization objectives, under fully cGMP compliant procedures. Our clients include leading academic institutions, major hospital systems and pharmaceutical companies of all sizes and stages (from entrepreneurial ventures and start-ups to established global firms). PGC's state-of-the-art manufacturing facility, comprised of multifunction suites that allow for greater flexibility, is able to produce a wide variety of pharmaceutical products including tablets, hard gelatin capsules, semi-solids, syrups, suspensions, and over-encapsulations. Processes that require the use of organic solvents can be accommodated in rooms specifically designed to handle such operations.

Media contact: Cynthia Sequin, 765-588-3340, casequin@prf.org


Research Park News

Purdue University, 610 Purdue Mall, West Lafayette, IN 47907, (765) 494-4600

© 2015-22 Purdue University | An equal access/equal opportunity university | Copyright Complaints | Maintained by Office of Strategic Communications

Trouble with this page? Disability-related accessibility issue? Please contact News Service at purduenews@purdue.edu.