Continued signs of stable economic growth indicate that the recovery is gaining momentum in many parts of the United States and Canada. Construction selling prices for institutional projects grew at a 6 percent annualized rate in 2012, on top of a 3 percent increase in 2011. Construction costs are expected to continue stabilizing and rising in many regions as market confidence and capital spending increase.
The six-story Academic Health Sciences Centre embraces multidisciplinary, highly technical research, while supporting Saskatchewan's commitment to provide exceptional healthcare for the people of the province. Flad Architects collaborated with Henry Downing Howlett Architects to design the new D Wing, which houses research labs, animal facilities, and academic offices for biomedical and pharmaceutical researchers from the various Health Sciences Colleges and units at the University of Saskatchewan.
PrimeCell is building the $50 million 4MEDia center in Ostrava in the Czech Republic. Located on the campus of Ostrava Teaching Hospital, the 70,000-sf biomedical research facility will accommodate 150 investigators creating therapies for conditions including heart disease, dementia, multiple sclerosis, and diabetes. The project will foster collaboration with academic research institutions and industry partners for the commercial development of pharmaceutical products. Completion is expected in mid-2014.
The Performance Guaranteed Facility (PGF) model is a relatively new type of public/private partnership that allows the occupants to own a building the moment construction begins, while private-sector partners commit to its design, construction, financing, and ongoing maintenance, including future rehabilitation. The model goes by different names, but the concept involves an interactive partnership designed to benefit all parties for the long term.
Pfizer has located its corporate headquarters for the Center for Therapeutic Innovation group on the top floor of the Center for Life Science | Boston (CLSB) building, in the heart of the Longwood Medical Area.
The UF Research and Academic Center at Lake Nona is a four-story, 100,000-gsf research, academic, and conferencing facility which enables the University of Florida to continue its mission at the Lake Nona Medical City in Orlando, Fla.
Amgen will build a $200 million monoclonal antibody manufacturing facility in the Tuas Biomedical Park in Singapore. The plant will supply both clinical and commercial products. Construction will begin in spring of 2013.
Sanofi-Aventis broke ground in December of 2012 on a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in King Abdullah Economic City in Saudi Arabia. Sited on a 377,000-sf plot of land near the city of Thuwal, the building will support the production of cardiovascular and oral anti-diabetic products.
Although relatively small in size compared to more established research institutions, the University of New England (UNE) is making tremendous strides in growing its research and scholarship programs and infrastructure despite a shrinking pool of available grant funding. The private university, founded in 1978, began focusing its expansion efforts on biomedical research only within the past decade.
NanoViricides will renovate an existing 18,000-sf facility in Shelton, Conn., to create a cGMP pilot plant. Designed by Id3A, the facility will include research laboratories, offices, and a cGMP pharmaceutical manufacturing suite. The project manager and engineering consultant for the renovation is MPH Engineering.
Gilead Sciences is planning to begin construction in early 2013 on a 45,000-sf research and development facility in Edmonton, Alberta. Located in the Eco Industrial Business Park, the three-story building will provide offices and laboratories for process chemistry and analytical drug discovery. The facility will be designed by Manasc Isaac Architects to accommodate 80 researchers.
When the Institute for Animal Health in Pirbright, U.K., launched a significant upgrade of aging infrastructure to improve health- and safety-related systems at its high-level containment facilities, project leaders undertook a benchmarking process to determine how much the upgrades would cost to operate and how Pirbright's organizational structure compared with similar facilities in preparing to meet long-range goals.
Eli Lilly will begin construction in late 2012 on a $140 million expansion of its Indianapolis pharmaceutical manufacturing campus. The 80,000-sf addition will support the production of insulin cartridges. Completion is expected in March of 2014 with operations beginning in 2015.
Novartis will invest $500 million to construct a cell-based biomanufacturing facility in Singapore. Located adjacent to its existing pharmaceutical plant in Tuas, the new biologics center will support both clinical and commercial production of biological therapies such as monoclonal antibodies. Construction will begin in early 2013 with full operations commencing in late 2016.
Researchers at the Health Protection Agency (HPA) in the United Kingdom have developed a way to safely anesthetize and transfer animals from BSL-3 and BSL-4 containment to a mobile imaging facility for CT and MRI scans without breaking the containment barrier. The process allows them to obtain the high-resolution, three-dimensional images necessary for their research without building a costly suite onsite.
