Pfizer has located its corporate headquarters for the Center for Therapeutic Innovation group on the top floor of the Center for Life Science | Boston (CLSB) building, in the heart of the Longwood Medical Area.
The UF Research and Academic Center at Lake Nona is a four-story, 100,000-gsf research, academic, and conferencing facility which enables the University of Florida to continue its mission at the Lake Nona Medical City in Orlando, Fla.
Amgen will build a $200 million monoclonal antibody manufacturing facility in the Tuas Biomedical Park in Singapore. The plant will supply both clinical and commercial products. Construction will begin in spring of 2013.
Sanofi-Aventis broke ground in December of 2012 on a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in King Abdullah Economic City in Saudi Arabia. Sited on a 377,000-sf plot of land near the city of Thuwal, the building will support the production of cardiovascular and oral anti-diabetic products.
Although relatively small in size compared to more established research institutions, the University of New England (UNE) is making tremendous strides in growing its research and scholarship programs and infrastructure despite a shrinking pool of available grant funding. The private university, founded in 1978, began focusing its expansion efforts on biomedical research only within the past decade.
NanoViricides will renovate an existing 18,000-sf facility in Shelton, Conn., to create a cGMP pilot plant. Designed by Id3A, the facility will include research laboratories, offices, and a cGMP pharmaceutical manufacturing suite. The project manager and engineering consultant for the renovation is MPH Engineering.
Gilead Sciences is planning to begin construction in early 2013 on a 45,000-sf research and development facility in Edmonton, Alberta. Located in the Eco Industrial Business Park, the three-story building will provide offices and laboratories for process chemistry and analytical drug discovery. The facility will be designed by Manasc Isaac Architects to accommodate 80 researchers.
When the Institute for Animal Health in Pirbright, U.K., launched a significant upgrade of aging infrastructure to improve health- and safety-related systems at its high-level containment facilities, project leaders undertook a benchmarking process to determine how much the upgrades would cost to operate and how Pirbright's organizational structure compared with similar facilities in preparing to meet long-range goals.
Eli Lilly will begin construction in late 2012 on a $140 million expansion of its Indianapolis pharmaceutical manufacturing campus. The 80,000-sf addition will support the production of insulin cartridges. Completion is expected in March of 2014 with operations beginning in 2015.
Novartis will invest $500 million to construct a cell-based biomanufacturing facility in Singapore. Located adjacent to its existing pharmaceutical plant in Tuas, the new biologics center will support both clinical and commercial production of biological therapies such as monoclonal antibodies. Construction will begin in early 2013 with full operations commencing in late 2016.
Researchers at the Health Protection Agency (HPA) in the United Kingdom have developed a way to safely anesthetize and transfer animals from BSL-3 and BSL-4 containment to a mobile imaging facility for CT and MRI scans without breaking the containment barrier. The process allows them to obtain the high-resolution, three-dimensional images necessary for their research without building a costly suite onsite.
The University of British Columbia opened the $133 million Pharmaceutical Sciences Building in September of 2012 in Vancouver. The 246,182-sf facility provides collaborative learning spaces and multidisciplinary research labs. The building houses both the Centre for Drug Research and Development and the Centre for High-Throughput Phenogenomics, which includes an advanced imaging suite. The facility was designed by Saucier + Perrotte Architects and Hughes Condon Marler Architects (HCMA).
The $354 million Translational Research Institute (TRI) Queensland will be completed in late 2012 in Brisbane. The project is a joint venture of the University of Queensland, Mater Medical Research Institute, Queensland University of Technology, and Princess Alexandra Hospital, where the facility is located. The 345,000-sf center will support integrated research, production, testing, and manufacturing of biopharmaceutical therapies.
Shire Regenerative Medicine will begin construction in early 2013 on a 150,000-sf campus in San Diego. Sited on 28 acres, the project will provide labs, offices, warehouses, and manufacturing space for the creation and production of advanced therapeutics. Initial occupancy is expected in 2014. Shire Regenerative Medicine is a subsidiary of Shire Pharmaceuticals of Dublin, Ireland. Shire's U.S. headquarters is located in Wayne, Pa.
Genzyme Corporation's $85 million Biologics Support Center has attained LEED Gold sustainable design certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. Located in Framingham, Mass., the six-story, 186,000-sf facility provides laboratories, technical support, offices, conference rooms, manufacturing, R&D space, and a data center. The project was designed by ARC/Architectural Resources Cambridge and was completed in July of 2011.
