Moffitt Cancer Center and a group of Tampa Bay institutions want to build a radiopharmaceutical industry around the 775-acre Speros campus in Pasco County, projecting the effort could create 4,000 high-wage jobs and generate $2.6 billion in statewide economic impact over the next decade. The coalition has not disclosed how much capital has been committed to make those projections possible.
The Florida Oncology and Radiopharmaceutical Growth Engine, or FORGE, brings together Moffitt and Speros with USF, Pasco-Hernando State College and Embarc Collective around plans for a radiopharmaceutical incubator and an integrated theranostics center, along with imaging technologist training at PHSC and nuclear pharmacy opportunities at USF. The coalition ultimately wants companies to move from drug discovery through production and clinical use at Speros.
Those programs and investments will proceed “as funding and support are secured,” Moffitt says, but the announcement does not disclose a development budget or identify committed private investment, public subsidies or federal and state grants. Neither the $2.6 billion nor the 4,000 jobs represents money committed or hiring announced by FORGE.
What gets built will partly reflect the physical demands of radiopharmaceuticals, which use radioactive material designed to find and bind to tumors. Because the isotopes begin decaying as soon as they are produced, manufacturers need to operate close enough to patients to move the treatments quickly into clinical use, favoring places where production can sit near cancer research and care.
That requirement is part of the case for Speros, where Moffitt is anchoring a Pasco County campus with enough space to accommodate companies developing and manufacturing the therapies near the researchers and clinicians using them. Attracting those companies would give FORGE something its institutional partners alone cannot provide: commercial operations capable of turning the proposed campus into a radiopharmaceutical production center.
No companies have been identified as preparing to establish operations at Speros, and Moffitt has not disclosed investors committed to financing the facilities they would require. Until those commitments emerge, FORGE has a consortium and a development plan, but not yet the capital or commercial presence needed to build the industry it envisions.