A coalition led by Moffitt Cancer Center has landed a proposed $47.3 million federal award to help build a radiopharmaceutical manufacturing hub on the 775-acre Speros campus in Pasco County, alongside $200 million in private-sector commitments. Combined, the public and private money identified this week would bring total funding for the project to more than $247 million, if the federal award is finalized.
The U.S. Department of Commerce announced the proposed award Thursday for the coalition known as FORGE, according to Tampa Bay Business & Wealth. The outlet reports that the Commerce Department did not identify the private investors behind the $200 million or explain how that money would be divided among the coalition's proposed facilities. FORGE is built around Moffitt's Speros campus, and its central focus is radiopharmaceuticals — drugs that pair radioactive isotopes with compounds engineered to target specific cancer cells.
FORGE is led by Speros and Moffitt Cancer Center and includes Embarc Collective, the University of South Florida and Pasco-Hernando State College as regional partners, per Moffitt Cancer Center. The plan calls for a radiopharmaceutical-focused incubator, an integrated theranostics center, imaging technologist training programs at PHSC and nuclear pharmacy opportunities at USF. Pasco-Hernando State College is expected to contribute imaging technologist training, USF will support nuclear pharmacy education and Embarc Collective will work with biotechnology startups, the Business & Wealth report notes.
Why Isotopes Can't Travel Far
The University of South Florida's own announcement explains the urgency behind building everything in one place: because the isotopes used in these therapies begin to decay immediately, production must occur close to patients, according to USF. That's the logic behind clustering discovery, production and clinical use in a single Speros location rather than shipping materials across the country.
That bottleneck isn't unique to Tampa Bay. Trade publication Pharma Manufacturing reports that manufacturing capacity has become a major constraint across the booming radiopharma sector, which requires specialized facilities including radiation shielding and controlled areas. Perspective Therapeutics CEO Thijs Spoor told the outlet that only about 30% of U.S. manufacturing suites with lead-shielded cells are estimated to be capable of meeting federal Part 211 requirements. The same report projects the global radiopharmaceutical market will nearly double by 2030, growing from roughly $11 billion this year to more than $20 billion.
A Facility Already Open, With a Dating Discrepancy
Part of the physical infrastructure for FORGE already exists. Moffitt's Radiopharmaceutical Program launched in August and now has radiochemistry lab space inside a newly built facility at Speros, according to Speros. That 250,000-square-foot Discovery and Innovation Center includes space reserved for the planned FORGE incubator, which Speros says is still in the design phase and expected to open in early 2028.
Tampa Bay Business & Wealth reported the center opened on October 22, and WUSF reported Moffitt opened the 250,000-square-foot research facility on Thursday, October 22. Either way, the opening came just days before this week's funding announcement, and the facility's radiochemistry labs and incubator space are seen as a foundation for the broader FORGE buildout at Speros.
Projected Jobs and Economic Impact
Moffitt's coalition projects that FORGE could eventually create an estimated 4,000 high-wage jobs and generate $2.6 billion in economic impact for Florida over the next 10 years, according to the Moffitt Cancer Center release. Those figures are the coalition's own projections rather than independently verified outcomes. Moffitt's broader growth at Speros is also backed by more than $600 million in infrastructure investment, Tampa Bay Business & Wealth reports.
Florida isn't the only place chasing this kind of capacity. Novartis announced in January plans to build a 35,000-square-foot radioligand therapy manufacturing facility in Winter Park, expected to come online by 2029 and serve patients across the Southeast, according to Novartis. Elsewhere, Niowave broke ground this year on a $75 million actinium-225 production facility in Lansing, Michigan, and AtomVie opened a $160 million radiopharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Hamilton, Ontario, per the same Pharma Manufacturing report.
Federal economic development dollars have also flowed to other Tampa Bay–area resilience projects in recent cycles. The Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council reports that Hernando County Government received $13.6 million for infrastructure improvements at the Brooksville-Tampa Bay Regional Airport, while Tampa Bay Wave received $1.4 million to launch a pilot accelerator initiative aimed at fostering economic resilience after Hurricanes Idalia, Helene and Milton. Those awards illustrate the kind of federal support flowing into the region as the Speros radiopharmaceutical buildout moves forward, though the Commerce Department's $47.3 million award for FORGE remains a proposal rather than a finalized grant.
