Industry News

Indianapolis-based Guidant Corp. will expand its footprint in Temecula, Calif., with the construction of two buildings totaling approximately 300,000 sf. Housing personnel and operations for its growing stents and emerging technology programs, the two buildings and adjacent parking structure are expected to break ground in the second quarter of 2006. The facilities are slated for completion in late 2007. The product lines accommodated by the expansion include drug eluting stents, carotid artery stents, and bioabsorbable stents.

North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University will dedicate its new 74,100-sf science building on April 7, 2006. The $21.8-million facility will house the chemistry and psychology departments and is part of the College of Arts & Sciences.

Groundbreaking on the new 85,000-sf Arizona Biomedical Collaborative building (ABC) on the Phoenix Biomedical Campus was celebrated on March 16, 2006. Housing Arizona State University's Department of Biomedical Informatics and the University of Arizona's College of Medicine wet lab space for diabetes, cancer, and neurological research, the facility is the first public building dedicated to research in Phoenix.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has initiated the second phase of construction on its 331,000-sf Genetic Medicine Building (GMB). The $120-million multidisciplinary research facility, comprised of seven stories plus a mechanical penthouse, has a deep footprint of approximately 40,000 sf of contiguous space. The GMB is designed around a central atrium that brings light into the entire building, even into the enclosed labs and offices through punched-out windows and open doors.

Temple University's School of Pharmacy opened a 700-sf drug manufacturing facility in February of 2006. Located on the fourth floor of the pharmacy school building in north Philadelphia, the facility adheres to FDA cGMP requirements and features a sophisticated air-filtration system, a non-porous ceiling, and seamless flooring. The plant will manufacture capsules and tablets used in phase-I and phase-II clinical trials in batches of between 1,000 and 100,000 units.