Pfizer is constructing two facilities in County Cork, Ireland. A $297 million biopharmaceutical clinical manufacturing plant in Shanbally will produce experimental medicines for Phase II and III clinical trials. An R&D center housing 100 employees will be built at Pfizer’s existing campus in Ringaskiddy. Both projects are slated for completion by year-end 2009.
U.S. pharmaceutical company Unigene has initiated construction on a research, development, and manufacturing facility in Shijiazhuang, China. The project is part of a joint venture with state-owned Chinese pharmaceutical company Shijiazhuang Pharmaceutical Group Corporation, its subsidiary China Pharmaceutical Group, and NBP Pharmaceutical Company.
The University of New England (UNE) broke ground on an academic and research facility for its College of Pharmacy in April of 2008. Located at UNE's Westbrook College Campus in Portland, the 48,000-sf project will house laboratories for pharmaceuticals and sterile products, pharmacy practice rooms, classrooms, faculty and administrative offices, a drug information center, and a 10,000-sf research floor. Completion is slated for summer of 2009. LEED certification will be sought for the project.
Alcon will break ground in 2009 on a 250,000-sf pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in Singapore. The facility will be sited on 20 acres in the Tuas Biomedical Park and will employ 150 workers. The plant is expected to begin operations in 2012. Alcon, based in Huenenberg, Switzerland, researches and manufactures pharmaceuticals, surgical equipment, and devices for the ophthalmic industry.
Sanofi Pasteur broke ground in April of 2008 on a $100 million vaccine research and development facility in Toronto. The project cost for the 15,000-sm building includes $80 million for construction and $20 million for equipment. Completion is slated for 2010.
The University of Maryland, Baltimore dedicated Building Two at its BioPark development in April of 2008. The six-story, 238,000-sf research facility will house tenants including the Institute for Genome Services, Gliknik, Paragon Bioservices, Westat, and the 38,000-sf Baltimore City Community College’s Bioscience Institute. The first two BioPark buildings were developed by Wexford Science & Technology. UMB broke ground on Building Three in spring of 2008. BioPark’s $500 million, 1.2 million-sf campus will be comprised of ten buildings upon completion.
The University of Maryland, Baltimore received $62 million from the state of Maryland in April of 2008 to construct an addition to the School of Pharmacy. The seven-story facility will house four floors of clinical and translational research in pharmacogenetics, nanomedicine, and drug discovery. Featuring technology-rich lecture halls and a patient interaction laboratory, the 92,635-sf project will connect to the existing Pharmacy Hall via a glass pavilion.
Genzyme announced a €130 million investment in the expansion of its Waterford, Ireland, campus in April of 2008. The project will add 5,600-sm to the existing 6,800-sm facility to support sterile fill/finish manufacturing, softgel manufacturing, administration, and laboratories for quality control, microbiology, chemistry, and stability. Construction will begin in summer of 2008 with completion slated for late 2009. Following commissioning and validation, the expanded facility will begin production in mid-2011.
Isogen has selected AES Clean Technology to design and construct a modular cleanroom facility for clinical pharmaceutical manufacturing in New Castle County, Delaware. The sterile contract filling facility will support multiple products from development through clinical, launch, and commercial production. The project will include isolators within a gas-sterilizable modular cleanroom, optimizing containment to prevent cross-contamination of compounds in a multi-product environment.
Scripps Research Institute is constructing three buildings totaling 350,000-sf on 40 acres adjoining Florida Atlantic University in Jupiter. Slated for completion by year-end 2008, the facilities will house biomedical research laboratories, technology space, and offices. A grand opening is set for Feb. 26, 2009. The buildings under construction at Scripps Florida include the Molecular and Biomedical Research building, the Advanced Technologies and Administration building, and the Drug Discovery building.
Sanofi-aventis received LEED certification for its 75,000-square-foot R&D facility in Cambridge, Ma., in February of 2008. Completed in June of 2007, the three-story Cambridge Research Center houses laboratories, cold rooms, offices, conference rooms, and meeting areas. The project team included construction manager Linbeck Construction and architectural firm KlingStubbins.
Cambridge Major Laboratories (CML) will initiate a $30 million expansion of its active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufacturing site in Germantown, Wis., in June of 2008. The project will expand the existing 60,000-sf campus to create 180,000-sf of medium scale (3-5 metric tons) manufacturing capacity.
After years of research, development and laboratory testing, SANYO has introduced the MCO-80IC Reach-In CO2 Incubator. It is both easy to use and designed specifically for critical applications in pharmaceutical, biotechnology and clinical investigation. Safe for even the most demanding of cell culture protocols, the SANYO MCO-80IC offers significant economic benefits by avoiding costly interruptions for decontamination, improving cell culture growth and expression under stable, repeatable conditions, and minimizing the potential for loss due to contamination.
Covance Inc., a drug development services company, has selected a 300,000-sf facility in the Innovation Technology Park in Manassas, Va. as the site for its new pharmaceutical research and development laboratory. The Prince William county facility was originally constructed as an insulin manufacturing plant for Eli Lilly. Covance will expand the facility to a total of 410,000-sf at a cost of $175 million. Construction is slated for completion by January of 2011 with occupancy expected by the end of that year. Covance is headquartered in Princeton, N.J.
Sanofi-aventis initiated construction in fall of 2007 on a $60 million pharmaceutical research center in Oro Valley, Arizona. The 110,000-sf facility is slated for completion in 2009 and will seek LEED certification. The project contractor is Chestnut Construction of Tucson. The building will house approximately 105 researchers engaged in early stage drug development.
