Industry News

National Surgical Hospitals (NSH) opened the 30-bed Spine Hospital of South Texas and an accompanying medical office building in September. A joint venture of NSH and approximately 20 local physicians, the $30-million Stone Oak medical development will specialize in surgical spine care and pain management. The facility is designed to eventually expand to 40 rooms.

Idec Pharmaceuticals broke ground in October 2002 on its new five-building corporate headquarters and laboratory facility in San Diego's University Towne Center. San Diego-based Cisterra Partners is developer of the 42.6-acre project, with Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum of St.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has selected McCarthy to construct its new $70-million Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies in Troy, N.Y. Upon completion in 2004, the 218,000-sf building will house 60 faculty and more than 300 researchers and graduate students dedicated to researching the application of engineering and the physical and information sciences to the life sciences. Focus areas will include functional tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, integrated systems biology, bioinformatics, biocatalysis and metabolic engineering.

Neose Technologies has completed its new $17-million manufacturing plant at its Horsham, Pa., headquarters. Design of the plant, including redesign of Neose's existing plant and the addition of 5,000 sf, began in February 2001.  The facility now contains 20,000 sf of processing and 3,500 sf of utility space.

Harvard University will develop the Molecular Target Laboratory with a $40-million grant from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health. The laboratory will use high throughput assays to identify disease-causing proteins and discover compounds to block them.