Pharmaceutical

AstraZeneca has opened two new research laboratories in the United Kingdom in September of 2006. The £60 million ($112 million) Cancer Research Area Building in Alderley Park, Macclesfield, Cheshire is the largest facility in AstraZeneca's international research and development network and houses laboratory space for 265 scientists in the disciplines of bioscience, chemistry, and pharmacokinetics and includes mass spectroscopy and NMR equipment. The £16 million ($30 million) Biology Building has opened at the company's Charnwood, Loughborough, Leicesters

Gemini Science Inc. (GSI) and La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology (LIAI) completed a new 145,000-sf collaborative research facility in La Jolla, Calif., in July of 2006. Located in the UC San Diego Science Research Park, the facility was designed by Delawie Wilkes Rodrigues Barker and built by DPR Construction.

The State University of New York (SUNY) has selected The S/L/A/M Collaborative to design three new science projects. At SUNY Buffalo, the 145,000-sf Acheson Hall will be renovated to provide a new home for the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences on the South Campus. The former chemistry building will be completely gutted and renovated to provide new classroom and biotech research space in a LEED® certified facility.

Bristol-Myers Squibb is putting a total of 900,000 sf of office space in Princeton, N.J., on the market with the intent to establish a long term leaseback. Part of the company's restructuring of its real estate holdings, the facilities to be sold are at two locations. The 77 Scudders Mill road site is comprised of 106 acres with three five-story office buildings connected by an underground service concourse with a multimedia studio. Permits are in place for a fourth five-story office building at the site as well as preliminary approval for two more buildings.

Emergent BioSolutions dedicated its 50,000-sf vaccine production plant in Lansing, Mich., on July 21, 2006. The $75-million, three-story facility will enable the company to expand production capacity for its anthrax vaccine, BioThrax®, as well as providing space for future immunobiotics development. Construction on the plant began in February 2006 and is expected to reach completion in early 2007, with FDA certification slated for 2008. The 24/7/365 facility will accommodate 275 employees. Emergent BioSolutions is part of BioPort Corporation.

Merck is constructing a $300-million vaccine manufacturing plant on 256 acres in the Treyburn Corporate Park in Durham, N.C. The 272,000-sf complex will be comprised of four buildings for production, administration, power, and warehouse space. Slated to be fully operational in 2008, the facility will employ approximately 200 workers engaged in the production of two vaccines, one for chicken pox and the other for measles, mumps, and rubella.

German pharmaceutical company Bayer AG will break ground in July 2006 on a $100-million expansion of its manufacturing facility in East Walpole, Mass. The facility, occupied by Bayer's medical diagnostics division, produces reagents used in diagnostic tests for cancer and heart disease. The 400,000-sf building will be expanded by 116,000 sf of additional manufacturing, warehouse, and storage space. Completion is expected by year-end 2008.

Completed in April 2005, Pfizer's 62,000-sf Clinical Research Unit (CRU) in New Haven, Conn., features state-of-the-art, flexible lab and research space for clinical trials of drug certification products and accommodates 50 volunteers and 50 staff. Designed by the architectural firm The S/L/A/M Collaborative of Glastonbury, Conn., and built by Whiting Turner of New Haven, the CRU has been awarded Silver LEED™ certification by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC),  the first such designation for a building in Connecticut.

Bristol-Myers will construct a 750,000-sf large-scale biologics manufacturing faciltiy on 85 acres at the former Fort Devens Army Base in Devens, Mass. The $1.1-billion project includes a $660-million capital expenditure by Bristol-Myers to construct a plant for the the manufacturing of biologics compounds including the rheumatoid arthritis treatment Orencia. Construction will begin in September 2006 with completion slated for 2009 and production to begin in late 2011.

Albany Molecular has initiated the first major expansion of its Hyderabad Research Centre in India with the construction of a 50,000-sf R&D center. Slated for completion in late 2007, the facility will house early stage contract drug discovery research, including medicinal chemistry and custom chemical synthesis. The project will include a scale-up production laboratory for active pharmaceutical ingredients and intermediates.

South San Francisco-based Genentech will construct a $250-million, 150,000-sf therapeutics filling and packaging facility on a 100-acre site in Hillsboro, Ore. The project will break ground in mid-2006 and reach completion by 2008; with U.S. FDA licensing, operations will commence by 2010. Genentech is also expanding its existing 427,000-sf Vacaville, Calif., manufacturing facility with the addition of 380,000 sf of production and fermentation space.

Pfizer has selected Gilbane Building Company in a joint venture with Tarlton Corporation as the Construction Manager for Pfizer's new research facility in Chesterfield, Mo. The four-story, 330,000-sf facility is part of a nearly $200-million expansion of Pfizer's existing four-building site. Gilbane's Chicago office and Tarlton's St. Louis office will oversee the project with the design team of Kling Architects.

Temple University's School of Pharmacy opened a 700-sf drug manufacturing facility in February of 2006. Located on the fourth floor of the pharmacy school building in north Philadelphia, the facility adheres to FDA cGMP requirements and features a sophisticated air-filtration system, a non-porous ceiling, and seamless flooring. The plant will manufacture capsules and tablets used in phase-I and phase-II clinical trials in batches of between 1,000 and 100,000 units.

Biotech giant Amgen will expand its South San Francisco campus with the addition of 500,000 sf of R&D space over the next three years. The first 92,000-sf facility is under construction; a second 92,000-sf structure will break ground in spring of 2006. The two buildings will house up to 700 employees total. Amgen also has an option to occupy three new adjacent buildings, yet to be constructed, with footprints of 100,000 sf each.

SAFC, a custom chemical manufacturing unit of Sigma Aldrich, has completed a $12-million expansion of its Madison, Wisc., facility. The Advanced Pharma Intermediates (API) building was expanded by 38,000 sf, more than doubling the existing 23,500-sf facility and its cGMP manufacturing capabilities. The two-story project added three new kilo laboratories, increased storage and warehouse space, and expanded SAFC's R&D laboratores to eight. The facility will begin commercial operations when it officially opens in March.