ElevateBio has selected DPS Group and TRIA to design ElevateBio BaseCamp, a 108,000-sf cGMP development and manufacturing facility in Waltham. Located in a 430,000-sf office and lab building, the facility will offer integrated R&D, process development, and cGMP manufacturing services for novel therapeutic technologies.
Aldevron will begin construction in August of 2019 on a 14-acre biologics campus in Fargo, N.D., where it is currently headquartered. The first phase comprises a two-story, 189,000-sf facility for the manufacture of plasmid DNA, proteins, mRNA, and antibodies. Increasing Aldevron’s GMP and GMP-Source™ production capacity up to tenfold, the structure will connect to the company's existing GMP facility and is expected to be fully operational by early 2021.
WuXi Biologics began construction in May of 2019 on a $365 million pharmaceutical production facility in Dundalk, Ireland. Sited on 52 acres, the 522,000-sf contract manufacturing center will utilize single-use technologies and processes, enabling cost-effective scale-out and the simultaneous production of multiple batches of varying volumes. Commercial operations are expected to begin in 2022 at the site, which will be the company's first manufacturing plant outside of China.
Hackensack Meridian Health opened the Center for Discovery and Innovation in May of 2019 in Nutley, N.J. Located on the ON3 campus adjacent to Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine at Seton Hall University, the 250,000-sf translational research facility will accelerate the creation of innovative therapeutics for the treatment of cancer, diabetes, dementia, antibiotic-resistant infections, and autoimmune disorders. The center houses the Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the Institute for Multiple Myeloma, and the Institute for Cancer and Infectious Disease.
Iovance Biotherapeutics entered into a lease agreement in May of 2019 to construct a 136,000-sf facility at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Featuring modular processes for optimal scalability, the building will support commercial and clinical production of therapeutics based on tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) technologies. The $125 million facility is slated for completion in mid-2021. Iovance will contribute approximately $75 million towards the cost of the building over three years for equipment and construction of the manufacturing suites.
Chugai Pharmaceuticals will begin construction in August of 2019 on a $1.15 billion research and development center in Yokohama, Japan. Consolidating two labs currently sited in Gotemba and Kamakura, the facility will support drug discovery including the creation of therapies based on next-generation antibodies and synthetic macrocycles, also known as middle molecules. The pharmaceutical research center will leverage leading-edge automation processes and artificial intelligence technologies to accelerate the delivery of innovative medicines to patients worldwide.
WuXi Biologics began construction in May of 2019 on a 1.3 million-sf integrated manufacturing center in Chengdu, China. Meeting the criteria of both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency's GMP guidelines, the biologics hub will include both drug development and commercial manufacturing facilities. Offering an initial bioreactor capacity of 48,000 liters, the project is WuXi's twelfth drug substance manufacturing plant and will use the company's open-access and proprietary platforms.
The Rosalind Franklin Institute broke ground in May of 2019 on a £40 million campus hub in Harwell in the United Kingdom. The four-story, 58,000-sf facility will provide the government-funded research center with labs, instrumentation suites, offices, and interaction spaces to support leading-edge translational medicine programs.
Bayer broke ground in May of 2019 on the $150 million Cell Culture Technology Center in Berkeley, Calif. The 40,000-sf biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility will produce advanced therapeutics for the treatment of cancer and other diseases, enabling the company to expand its biologics development and launch capabilities. Fluor Corporation is providing a single point of responsibility for engineering, procurement, construction management, commissioning, qualification, validation, and integration of the project.
Novo Nordisk's global production will be entirely powered by renewable energy by early 2020, with a ten-year goal of achieving zero carbon emissions from operations and transportation. The pharmaceutical company has made a $70 million investment in a 105-megawatt-dc solar energy installation to be built in Pender County, North Carolina.
Biotechpharma UAB is initiating an expansion of its existing manufacturing campus in Vilnius, Lithuania. The $56 million project includes construction of a leading-edge process development lab and the installation of a new line of bioreactors for microbial fermentation at the 5,000-liter scale. Flexible facility design will also allow for increased mammalian cell culture production capacities.
The new addition to the existing Pharmacy Building creates an exciting and energetic new identity for the School of Pharmacy on the Rutgers University Brunswick campus, as well as a new front door located on a main campus pathway.
Kite Pharma is planning to build a biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Frederick, Md. Located on a 20-acre site at the Urbana Corporate Center, the project will provide 217,000 sf of manufacturing and support space for the production of chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR T) cell therapies as well as investigational T cell receptor (TCR) cell therapies being evaluated in solid tumors. The facility will also include 62,000 sf of office space. Occupancy is expected in 2021. Kite is a subsidiary of Gilead Sciences.
Cambrex Corporation completed construction in April of 2019 on a $24 million facility for the manufacture of highly potent active pharmaceutical ingredients (HPAPIs) in Charles City, Iowa. The 6,000-sf project houses four reactors with capacities ranging from 200 to 1,000 gallons to accommodate batches from 50 to 300 kilograms. An existing small scale manufacturing area has also been reconfigured.
EMD Serono’s SagaMORE project—designed to enhance the company’s progressive work culture through employee engagement, well-being, and biophylic design features—demonstrates why human health-centered design is the new frontier in the creation of built environments. The office complex, comprising an existing office building and a recent addition, is the first new and existing building project in the U.S., and only the second in the world, to achieve WELL Gold certification from the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI).
