Cambridge-based pharmaceutical company Alkermes, Inc., has leased 91,000-sf in Chelsea at Brickyard Square Biotech Park to house its subsidiary, Advanced Inhalation Research. The space features 28-foot high ceilings conducive to manufacturing. Alkermes will invest more than $25 million in the structure.
McKesson HBOC Inc. has moved to secure a maximum of available space at the new Station Oaks complex in Pleasant Hill, Calif. The San Francisco pharmaceutical giant could acquire the entire 195,000-sf facility near the Pleasant Hill Bart station. Station Oaks has just commenced construction.
University of North Texas Health Science Center has plans for a $40 million, 180,000-sf incubator for biotech and pharmaceutical companies. The initial building would be shared with the center's School of Public Health, which is in need of additional space for classrooms, faculty, and computer labs. The plan for the incubator includes production facilities, labs, equipment, and opportunities to collaborate with the researchers. Depending on the growth of the incubator, a second 200,000-sf structure may be constructed exclusively for the biotech center.
Millennium Pharmaceuticals has opened a 200,000-sf addition to its headquarters in University Park, a 2.3 million-sf park in Cambridge. Over the next few years, the biotech company plas to construct an additional 212,000 sf, which will bring Millennium's presence to a total of 673,000 sf at the park.
Metrics opened its new 44,000-sf grassroots R&D Labs and Production Facility at the Indigreen Corporate Park in December 2000. The facility comprises 19,000 sf of analytical, dose evaluation, trace metals and raw materials labs; more than 7,000 sf of Class 100,000 cGMP manufacturing area with a fluid bed dryer; and 10,000 sf of offices. The GMP facility enables Metrics to develop, manufacture, and pack oral solid and liquid dosage forms and topicals.
Lexigen Pharmaceuticals has scheduled the first phase of a new research campus in Billerica, Bedford and Burlington to be completed by spring of 2002. The 46-acre site will be developed by construction managers Linbeck/Kennedy & Rossi of Lexington, Mass.
Immunex Corporation broke ground in January 2001 on the Helix Project—a new $750-million research and technology center—on a 29-acre parcel of undeveloped industrial land in Seattle. The facility will consolidate Immunex’s Seattle employees and will accommodate approximately 1,700 employees. Phase I of the center totals 1.1 million gsf and is scheduled for completion in fall/winter 2003.
BioReliance opened a new $24 million, $58,000-sf facility in late September 2000 to provide large-scale, viral gene therapy and drug manufacturing services to biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. The company will provide bulk manufacturing of the human smallpox vaccine for OraVax, a Cambridge, Mass., biopharmaceutical firm that was recently awarded a $343 million contract for the vaccine by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
Alpha Therapeutics Corporation has awarded a contract to Ware & Malcomb Architects of Woodland Hills, Calif., for the design of the tenant improvement methods validation development laboratory expansion. The project includes the design and build out of a full new methods development lab space located within the company’s Quality Control facility. Construction of the project will complete the company’s latest development of existing methods validation development facilities for their various pharmaceutical biological products.
Merial has plans to relocate and consolidate its five major U.S. animal health operations to several sites in Georgia. A suburb of Atlanta will be selected for the company's North American headquarters, where 400 employees will be housed. The company's Athens, Ga., manufacturing and research facility will accommodate an additional 80 relocated R&D employees. The University of Georgia will be the site of a planned pilot vaccine development facility, where Merial would manufacture both animal and human vaccines.
Praecis Pharmaceuticals, based in Cambridge, Mass., will relocate its headquarters and R&D lab operations to a new 175,000-sf structure in Waltham. The three-story shell was designed by Jung Brannen Associates of Boston; the contractor that built the shell was John Moriarty & Associates of Winchester. Praecis will use the same firms to complete the facility. Praecis will move into all but 32,000 sf of the facility in early 2001, subleasing the unoccupied space until needed.
Idec Pharmaceuticals Corp., based in San Diego, received approval in August from the City of Oceanside to build a full-scale manufacturing plant there. An incentive for Idec to locate in Oceanside was the city’s agreement to build a $1.2-million “brine line” that will funnel wastewater from the Idec plant to the ocean. The $1.25-billion project will be built in three phases at the Ocean Ranch Corporate Center. Phase one will be a 362,000-sf manufacturing and R&D facility, with completion anticipated in July 2003.
Abgenix Inc. is expanding with a new $50 million, 200,000-sf complex at Ardenwood Corporate Park in Fremont. The interior of an existing 100,000-sf shell building will be customized and a new 100,000-sf structure will be built on adjacent property. Abgenix will use its existing nearby facility for R&D, shifting the corporate headquarters, offices, and labs to the new complex. Construction is scheduled to begin in summer 2000, with completion in approximately 14 months. The general contractor is Sobrato Development Cos. of Cupertino, Calif.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plans to have a guide in place by January 2001 for hospitals on "The Policy of the Reuse of Single Use Devices".
The strategy proposes the following:-to treat hospitals that reprocess single use devices in the same way it treats device manufactures
-to require submission of premarketing data as if reprocessors were seeking to market device for the first time
-to require reprocessors to label single use devices and provide instructions for use.
The National Fire and Protection Agency (NFPA) has partnered with Western Fire Chiefs Association (WFCA) and the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) to build a set of Consensus Codes--a new set of codes for the built environment. Their goal is to provide safety officials with a new consistent and compatible set of codes by the year 2003. As part of the Consensus Code project NFPA also plans to devise a NFPA Building Code.
