Pharmaceutical

BioMed Realty is creating a 482,000-sf life sciences hub in Boston's Seaport District. Previously serving as the corporate headquarters of John Hancock, the building was acquired by BioMed Realty in late 2020. Featuring robust mechanical and electrical systems, the existing structure has attained LEED Platinum sustainable design certification and includes a variety of collaborative meeting areas. The facility will be renovated to provide sophisticated lab and office environments for biomedical companies. Occupancy is expected in the second half of 2022. 

Thermo Fisher Scientific is expanding its global production capacity for vaccines, medicines, and biologic therapies. Construction will begin in mid-2021 on a 130,000-sf facility in Greenville, N.C. Slated for completion in 2022, the standalone structure will accommodate two live-virus filling lines. The project is part of a $500 million investment in the site that will add six new lines in existing buildings to support commercial-scale liquid vial filling and the creation of lyophilized materials. 

Millennium Partners and Beacon Capital Partners will begin construction in late 2021 on a 380,000-sf life sciences facility in Boston. Designed by Handel Architects in collaboration with STUDIO ENÉE, the mixed-use development will provide leading-edge laboratories, offices, and R&D suites clustered around a collaborative open space. Located on 4.6 acres in the Raymond L. Flynn Marine Park, the eight-story project will feature a central core of corrugated metal to celebrate the area's industrial heritage.

Nationwide Children's Hospital is constructing a $100 million gene therapy manufacturing center in Columbus, Ohio. The 185,000-sf facility will enable Andelyn Biosciences, a for-profit subsidiary of Nationwide Children's, to supply pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies with genetic material for use in research and clinical trials. Located in The Ohio State University's Innovation District, the leased structure will feature advanced cGMP environments for commercial-scale manufacturing.

Stanford University dedicated the $210 million Biomedical Innovation Building in November of 2020 in Palo Alto, Calif. Designed by ZGF Architects with Research Facilities Design (RFD) as laboratory design consultant, the 190,439-gsf facility strategically collocates investigators with expertise in cardiovascular medicine, pediatrics, orthopaedics, immunotherapy, personalized genomics, otolaryngology, and asthma and allergy.

The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) opened the £75 million Centre for Cancer Drug Discovery in London in November of 2020. Located in the borough of Sutton, the 78,580-sf facility features team laboratories where biologists, evolutionary scientists, chemists, pharmacologists, data scientists, and clinicians can discover new solutions for cancer evolution and drug resistance.

The University of Oregon dedicated the first phase of the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact in December of 2020 in Eugene. Designed by Ennead Architects and Bora Architects to encourage interaction and collaboration, the $225 million, 160,000-sf building offers leading-edge biomedical laboratories, core facilities, classrooms, and an innovation center.

ApiJect will break ground in December of 2020 on the Gigafactory campus in Durham, N.C. Strategically sited in Research Triangle Park, the complex will be the world’s largest pharmaceutical fill-finish facility, offering an annual production capacity of three billion single-dose prefilled injectors. Funded by a federal loan of $590 million, the one million-sf project will provide BSL-2 manufacturing areas, cold and ultra-cold storage infrastructure, and an onsite needle and cannula factory.

Alexandria Real Estate Equities has attained the world's first WELL Health-Safety Rating for laboratory space at Alexandria LaunchLabs in New York City. Augmenting the center’s existing WELL certification for building design, the WELL Health-Safety Rating for Facilities Operations and Management includes further measures to protect the health of tenants, employees, visitors, and service personnel. Protocols at Alexandria LaunchLabs include:

The University of Massachusetts Medical School is planning to construct the $325 million New Education and Research Building in Worcester. Accommodating 77 principal investigators, the nine-story, 350,000-sf facility will include space for animal research as well as housing an FDA-compliant manufacturing center for clinical trial therapeutics. The project will enable UMass to increase its class sizes help meet the needs of the commonwealth and the nation for physicians, graduate nurses, life sciences researchers, and other health sciences professionals.

The Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) began construction in October of 2020 on the Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre in Inchinnan in the United Kingdom. Created in collaboration with the University of Strathclyde, GSK, and AstraZeneca, the £42 million facility will enable the development of new pharmaceutical production methods that will be proven at scale in a GMP environment.

Merck is constructing a $69 million facility for the production of high-potency active pharmaceutical ingredient (HPAPI) and antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) compounds. Representing an expansion of the company's existing campus near Madison, the 70,000-sf structure will feature containment environments specifically designed for the manufacture of substances with single-digit nanogram occupational exposure limits. The building will allow the large-scale production of increasingly potent compounds for the creation of innovative cancer therapeutics.

Facility Logix, EwingCole, and Biggins Lacy Shapiro have launched Rapid Reshore & Development (RR&D) to provide turnkey professional services to the life sciences and biopharmaceutical industries. Addressing many of the logistical challenges faced by companies developing drugs, vaccines, and medical devices, the alliance represents an evolution from transaction-driven service models to a holistic focus on client needs.

Construction began in October of 2020 on the $44.2 million Discovery Square 2 building in Rochester, Minn. Designed by RSP Architects, the 125,000-sf facility will offer leasable research environments for life science companies. Sited in the Destination Medical Center district, the five-story structure will feature advanced laboratory infrastructure, centralized common spaces, and a physical connection to the adjacent One Discovery Square building.

Merck KGaA opened the $58.5 million Centre for Electronic Applications in September of 2020. Located on the company's headquarters campus in Darmstadt, Germany, the 118,400-sf facility will accelerate the discovery and development of next-generation materials for semiconductors and displays. Providing collaborative lab and office environments for 140 employees, the structure features a sophisticated building façade with dynamic liquid crystal windows that can be easily adjusted to minimize glare and heat gain. Construction began on the project in summer of 2017.