Pharmaceutical

Biogen Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., plans to build a $350-million factory in Denmark to produce cell cultures for proteins and process the multiple sclerosis drug Avonex. Construction is slated to begin in 2002. 

A subsidiary of Nestle SA, Alcon Laboratories Inc. is in the early stages of planning a 400,000-sf expansion of its Fort Worth R&D facility. Approval by Switzerland-based Nestle is pending for construction of the $20-million to $30-million expansion.

Purdue Pharmaceuticals is expanding its new $25 million, 140,000-sf greenfield solid dosage manufacturing facility in Wilson, which ws completed in March 2000. Full-scale manufacturing is scheduled to begin by the second quarter of 2001. At full operation later this year, the facility will accommodate 150 employees. The Southeast Regional office of Clark, Richardson & Biskup Consulting Engineers Inc.

PharmaNet is tripling the size of its operations in Cary, North Carolina. The Princeton, N.J.-based contract research organization provides the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries with a comprehensive range of drug development and consulting services. Slated for September, the expansion of the Cary office will increase square footage from 6,600 to 19,000 and consolidate space on two floors of the Weston One to a larger facility on a single floor.

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.