Industry News

PPD, a Wilmington-based pharmaceutical and biotech discovery and development firm, has leased an additional 25,000-sf in Morrisville. PPD currently occupies four buildings totaling 283,000-sf at its expanding Triangle campus.

North Carolina Central University in Durham is considering an expansion of its 40,000-sf Biomedical/Biotechnology Research Institute. An additional facility, a mirror image of the existing building, would be sited on an adjacent parking lot. The expansion would enable the University to double its 32-member biotech staff.

M.D. Anderson Cancer Center has topped out its new $221.9-million George and Cynthia Mitchell Basic Sciences Research Building. Slated for completion and initial occupancy in November, the 18-story, 500,000-sf facility is expected to be fully operational in June 2004. Located in Houston's Texas Medical Center, the building will house six floors of research laboratories, an auditorium, conference facilities, small-animal vivariums, and classrooms for the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston.

The U.S.

Lawrence Livermore Laboratory has received approval from the federal government to build a laboratory for the study of potential biological weapons in Livermore, Calif. Rated Biosafety Level 3 (BSL-3), the lab will enable research in the detection of potential threats including anthrax, botulism, and other diseases. In planning the facility, the National Nuclear Security Administration reviewed 92 public comments and, as a result, incorporated 33 changes to the planned facility.