Tokyo, Japan-based drugmaker Eisai Co. is planning to begin construction in early 2004 on a $65-million R&D center in Andover, Mass. The facility will enable Eisai to double its U.S. basic research staff to as many as 170 employees. Eisai will also spend approximately $9-million on a second production line for drugs used in clinical testing at one of its existing U.S. research facilities.
Andrx Corp. paid a Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. affiliate company $28-million for a 500,000-sf manufacturing facility in Morrisville. Over the next five years Andrx will engage in a complete renovation and re-equipping of the building estimated to cost $85-million.
Wilmington-based Pharmaceutical Product Development (PPD) is negotiating construction of an additional 70,000-sf facility at its Barclay Commons campus with developer Cameron. PPD, a contract research firm for pharmaceutical and biotech companies, has two existing buildings totaling 60,000-sf and 70,000-sf at the site.
Icon Clinical Research will consolidate operations totalling 25,000 sf from offices in San Bruno and Mountain View with a move in early 2003 to a five-story R&D and office building in Redwood City. Icon provides biometric and clinical research services for the biotech and pharmaceutical industries.
Bayer Diagnostics, a division of Bayer Corp., has vacated seven East Bay locations to consolidate operations in a recently completed 75,000-sf Berkeley building. Located in Wareham Development's Aquatic Park where Bayer Diagnostics will continue to occupy space in two adjacent buildings, the five-story facility was built to the division's specifications.
Cedra Clinical Research opened its new $1.4-million, 23,500-sf clinical trials research center in Austin in November 2002. Increasing Cedra's number of beds from 60 to 100, the center features amenities for study participants including space for recreational activities and movie screenings, a study area with computers, and comfortable furniture. Cedra conducts clinical trials in various therapeutic areas such as asthma and allergy research, hypertension, and diabetes.
Idec Pharmaceuticals broke ground in October 2002 on its new five-building corporate headquarters and laboratory facility in San Diego's University Towne Center. San Diego-based Cisterra Partners is developer of the 42.6-acre project, with Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum of St.
Boston University will establish the Center for Chemical Methodologies and Library Development with a $10.7-million grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health. The project will involve construction of chemistry libraries for licensing to biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.
Wyeth has worked with McCarthy to upgrade its St. Louis facilities, purchased in 1998, for the production of the hemoophilia drug ReFacto®. McCarthy has completed more than 500 projects for a total of almost $30 million to ready the cGMP manufacturing facilities, labs, warehouse and offices for Wyeth's manufacturing needs. Currently, the St. Louis facility is the only one in the United States producing ReFacto®. Flad & Associates of Madison, Wisc., has provided architectural services.
Malvern-based Centocor, a maker of cardiovascular and arthritis drugs, has leased 158,000 sf in the Radnor Technology Research Center. Centocor will utilize the two top floors of the five-story research building and the 44,000-sf basement vivarium. A condition of the lease was that previous tenant, Wyeth-Ayerst, decommission labs in which toxins had been used in research.
Sweden-based AstraZeneca is adding 80,000-sf to its 190,000-sf Waltham facility. The project is slated for completion in 2003.
Kinetic Biosystems of Atlanta will locate a $40-million contract biomanufacturing plant for its KBI BioPharma division in the Triad region of North Carolina. The facility, to be housed initially in at least 30,000-sf on a site of 3 to 10 acres, will be a pilot plant for developing processes for manufacturing clinical-trial drug quantities using monoclonal antibodies. Greensboro, N.C., already houses one Kinetic Biosystems office.
Swiss pharmaceutical Novartis AG is renovating over 500,000-sf at the Necco (New England Confectionary Company) property in Cambridge for biotech use. Novartis plans to employs 600 technology experts, scientists and support staff at the facility. The lease is in addition to Novartis' previous Cambridge lease of 450,000 sf to house its worldwide research group.
The University of Georgia is planning to build a $10-million, 33,000-sf commercial pharmaceutical manufacturing facility at the University's Riverbend Research Village in Athens. Designed by Lockwood Green of Spartanburg, S.C., the project's construction will be managed by Atkins Hanscomb Faithful & Gould of Atlanta. The building will include research labs, classrooms, offices, and bioprocessing and manufacturing space for solid oral dosage medicines. The project is slated for groundbreaking in May 2003.
Serologicals Corp. of Atlanta will decide the location of a second Ex-Cyte manufacturing facility by November 30. Several locations in the Midwest are being considered as the site of the $28-million plant. Completion is slated for the first half of 2004, with a 15 to 18 month construction period.
Serologicals provides biological products and technologies for the research, development, and manufacture of biologically-based life science products.
