On Aug. 14, 2015, The Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute of Florida (VGTI Florida) announced plans to close the research institute.

VGTI Florida’s failing was attributed to the cumulative effect of multiple factors including the lack of a university affiliation, National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget cuts, and the large debt burden associated with the construction of its 100,000 sq ft state-of-the-art facility at the Tradition Center for Innovation in Port St. Lucie.

The VGTI was founded in 2019 as an independent non-profit institute with the assistance of a $60 million grant from the State of Florida’s Innovation Incentive Fund intended to anchor and drive the State’s expansion strategy for biomedical research.