Durham-based Trimeris is considering consolidating operations with a campus in Research Triangle Park. Although other sites are in the running, Trimeris is eyeing 40 acres owned by JDS Uniphase of California as a possible corporate headquarters location. A developer is drawing up plans for the project. Trimeris is currently developing an HIV treatment drug.
Netherlands-based pharmaceutical company Diosynth is planning a two-phase purchase of 91.3 acres in Research Triangle Park (RTP) with plans to add over 300,000 sf of new manufacturing space. Diosynth's purchase of the first 40 acres will be completed this summer, with an option at year-end on the remaining land. Now occupying 30,000 sf of Cary lab and office space and 110,000 sf of RTP manufacturing space, Diosynth currently has 600 Triangle employees.
Shire Laboratories is seeking a Montgomery County location for a planned large-scale manufacturing facility. The expansion may also include lab and office space. Currently operating out of 45,000 sf in Rockville, Shire Laboratories is an advanced pharmaceutical drug delivery company owned by Shire UK.
Bayer Corp. is developing Buildings 80 and 82, a $35-million warehouse and pharmaceutical packaging facility. Developed on a 14.5-acre brownfield site in Berkeley, the 150,000-sf project will be built by DPR Construction of Redwood City. Architects on the project team include EQE International and GEZ Architects, as well as Jacobs Engineering. Construction began in June 2001; planned completion in February 2002.
Novartis AG will lease the entire 255,000-sf Technology Square building and 150,000 sf nearby to establish the Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge. The Swiss pharmaceutical giant, Europe's third-largest drug manufacturer, will invest $255-million in the worldwide research headquarters that will eventually house 900 scientists.
San Antonio-based pharmaceutical company Ilex Oncology expected to close in late May 2002 on a lease of 32,000 sf of newly refurbished Cambridge lab space. Ilex, currently leasing a smaller Boston space, plans to relocate in late fall to the Cambridge facility. The new lab is located in a 128,000-sf, four-story office building converted for lab use being finished by property owner and developer The Beal Cos. of Boston.
Eli Lilly & Co. is prepared to invest as much as $1 billion in its planned synthetic insulin and drug manufacturing plant in Virginia. The pharmaceutical giant will employ up to 700 people at the new 600,000-sf Prince William County plant.
Ireland-based biotech firm Elan is investing $20.2-million in the expansion and redevelopment of its four-building neurology research campus in South San Francisco. The project includes construction of a $13-million lab complex in a newly leased 66,000-sf facility. Elan will also complete the renovation of an existing 44,000-sf lab within the next three months. The expansion will concentrate Elan’s 180 Bay Area researchers in a single campus, as well as provide space for 70 additional researchers.
Eli Lilly decided in May to locate its $425-million insulin manufacturing facility at the 124-acre Innovation@ Prince William business park in northern Virginia. The Innovation is focused on attracting biotechnology, bioinformatics, and forensic bioscience companies. The Eli Lily project, which will formulate, fill and package all forms of Humalog and Humulin insulin, is the company's first U.S. manufacturing plant outside Indiana. The plant will bring over 700 high-tech jobs to the region when it is fully operational in 2007.
Gaithersburg, Md.-based Avalon Pharmaceuticals is seeking a 44,000- to 55,000-sf Montgomery County facility to house its R&D and administrative departments. Programming and design has begun for the planned analytical and organic chemistry laboratories for drug discovery. The facility may be pre-existing or a building that can be retrofitted or built-out.
Pharmaceutical company ViroPharma Inc. is expanding its 70,000-sf Exton office complex with the addition of 16,000 sf. The facility is located in Hankin Group's Eagleview corporate center.
Industrial biotech company Genencor is planning a 22,000-sf manufacturing facility in one of the following cities: Palo Alto, Calif., Belois, Wis., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Elkhart, Ind., or Rochester, N.Y. Based in Palo Alto, Genencor currently has 1,300 employees. The new facility will manufacture larger quantities of human therapeutics that Genencor is currently researching for healthcare and pharmaceutical applications.
GlaxoSmithKline has completed a $13-million cGMP upgrade of the Tums® manufacturing site--the only such facility in the world. McCarthy performed upgrades to the 70-year-old plant, which produces 10 billion tablets annually. Designed by architect Lockwood Greene Engineers, of Spartanburg, S.C., these upgrades affected every aspect of the manufacturing process, from raw material handling through packaging.
Discovery Laboratories Inc. has leased a 10,000-sf research laboratory facility in Redwood City, Calif. Based in Doylestown, Penn., the biopharmaceutical company plans to use the facility to develop its synthetic aerosol version of human lung surfactants.
Tokyo-based Eisai is expanding its 24,000-sf facilities at the Keystone Industrial Park in Durham with the lease of an additional 40,000 sf. The pharmaceutical company plans to add 30 employees and gain more distribution space, in addition to Eisai's 85,000-sf manufacturing facility in Research Triangle Park. Eisai's U.S. headquarters are in Teaneck, N.J.
