- Strive Compounding Pharmacy opened a $56 million manufacturing plant in Alachua, planning up to $5 billion in annual production by 2027.
- The facility currently employs 30 people and aims to expand to about 400 employees with varied scientific and engineering backgrounds.
- Strive produces customized medications mainly from Chinese-sourced materials, supplying hospitals near Alachua and addressing drug shortages.
A new era of pharmaceutical manufacturing commenced in Alachua last week as Strive Compounding Pharmacy celebrated its arrival in the community with a family day for employees.
Strive is an Arizona-based drug compounder setting up shop in the 270,000-square-foot plant that once housed Ology Bioservices (now Nanotherapeutics, Inc.) and most recently Resilience US Inc. The company anticipates maximum annual production there could reach around $5 billion.
When Resilience filed for bankruptcy and closed its Alachua location in July 2025, it generated a wave of more than 100 layoffs in the wake of the shutdown.
But many of the former Resilience workers are coming back to the industry with new positions at Strive. The company’s family day marked the first time any employees had been allowed to bring family members onto the property.
The event featured a cookout, lawn games, dunk tank, bounce house and tours through the plant’s seemingly endless halls of sterilized, bunny-suit-only laboratories, production rooms and the “Godzilla” unit, affectionately named for its enormity.
Jason McGuire is Strive’s Alachua site director and vice president of operations. He said the facility will roll out operations in three phases starting in October and finish by September 2027, all with a mission to steward the facility and its surrounding community well.
“Our goal truly is to find ways we can connect with the community and help rebuild even better something that we saw once existed that’s going to be long-term and sustainable,” McGuire said. “So hopefully, you know, for the success of everybody in the area and in the region, personally, professionally and economically.”
Strive has grown to operate six locations across the U.S. in California, Texas, Missouri, Virginia, Tampa and now Alachua, since its founding in 2018.
As a 503A, the company manufactures customized medications for patients seeking alternatives to the name brands. They could be looking to avoid side effects or need a different route for taking the medication.
Most of Strive’s medications include classes like hormone replacement therapies and peptides used for weight loss, and can be tailored in form (oral, injectable or implant) and dosage for all ages. Roughly 90% of all materials used to make its medications come from China.
McGuire said Alachua appealed to the company as its next location because of proximity to hospitals like the University of Florida Health Shands Hospital, HCA Florida North Florida Hospital, as well as the surrounding universities.
“We could potentially come in and supply drugs that are in shortage or drugs that may not be available in a certain dosage form,” he said. “But I think the partnerships and the opportunities really are probably too numerous to list right now.”
Strive acquired Resilience’s abandoned facility at an auction in November 2025. Although McGuire didn’t have a price tag for the project, the Alachua County Property Appraiser valued the building and all its high-tech equipment at $56,069,303 in 2025.
The facility currently has 30 full-time employees and will look to expand to around 400, all with various backgrounds like engineering, microbiology, chemistry and pharmaceutical sciences.
McGuire said the Alachua plant will be “Striveified” with renovations and a hazardous drug compounding unit will be added.
Because most of what Strive makes will be sterile injectables and expensive, McGuire said controlled environments are critical for preventing contamination mistakes costly to the patient and company.
Running 12 hours a day for five days a week, he said the Alachua facility can produce 50 to 100 batches of medications weekly, each worth $1 million, for a total well north of 100 million units of medication annually. One false or contaminated unit could throw off everything.
“The goal is that we’re setting up our production planning around what that long-term demand is,” McGuire said. “If we can produce one large batch of product one time, say in a given month, then that saves us on a lot of the operational costs of doing smaller batches, and also reduces your testing cost and your labor load required to manage multiple batches.”
McGuire said there’s been an atmosphere of excitement surrounding the new plant amongst Alachua city officials and chamber representatives. He said lifting off the weight of Resilience’s closure adds to it.
Travis Weaver serves as Strive’s director of quality in Alachua after nine years working for the plant’s previous owners. He said his excitement for the project comes from seeing the building back up and running again under new leadership.
“What we’re really looking forward to is just seeing the buildings go and making sure that we do things the right way,” he said. “Keep positive attitudes, you know, a lot of us went through layoffs and everything. It seemed to be several years of laying off twice a year. So seeing something different, I think, is really big.”
Manny Maldonado is part of Strive’s maintenance team and also worked for the previous owners.
Although some former employees were hesitant to come back after leaving the plant on bad terms, Maldonado said it was a good sign the new leadership had already enacted positive changes employees wanted to see, including more events, like the family day.
The mechanic showed his wife, daughter and grandkids his workplace for the first time in his eight-year career there.
“This is for us. It was something we asked for from the beginning,” Maldonado said. “This was really nice what they did for us.”