june 07 update

Skanska USA Building Inc. is well under way on a four-year project constructing the North Carolina Cancer Hospital, the fifth hospital in the University of North Carolina Hospitals system. In addition to the 324,000-square-foot cancer hospital, Skanska is also building a 105,000-square-foot physicians' office building across the street.

The North Carolina Cancer Hospital project is also unique because it is a pilot project for a program called the Green Guide for Healthcare, which is similar to the LEED Rating

The North Carolina Cancer Hospital, which has a construction value of approximately $145 million, is scheduled for substantial completion by July 2009 and a grand opening by December 2009.

MaRS Selects Alexandria Real Estate Equities to Expand the MaRS Centre in the Discovery District of Toronto

MaRS announced that it has selected Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE: ARE), North America's pre-eminent, first-in-class and largest life science property specialist, as the development partner for an iconic new building which will anchor the city's biomedical corridor in the Discovery District of Toronto. To be developed on a prominent street corner in Toronto at University Avenue and College Street, the building is adjacent to the seat of the provincial government, cultural and financial districts, and world-class academic and clinical research institutions. Alexandria will apply its renowned expertise in developing clusters, including its proprietary programmatic elements, to strengthen Toronto's growing life science and technology cluster centered in the Discovery District. The influence and impact of MaRS on the local community, greater Ontario and Canada will grow exponentially through the strategic alliance with Alexandria.

The planned class A, high rise advanced technology building will add up to approximately 900,000 square feet of state-of-the-art office, laboratory, technology and related space to the existing MaRS infrastructure and will include an extension of the soaring atrium at MaRS - a prized location for arts, science and internationally acclaimed collaboration events since it’s opening in late 2005. The building will offer Alexandria's unique range of state-of-the-art facilities and proprietary products and services designed to foster the continued development of the broad and diverse life science and technology sectors. This multi-occupancy building will include highly flexible and adaptable space for both emerging and more established companies and institutions spanning the life science and technology domains. Plans call for a direct connection to the subway and a showpiece "front room" as the gateway to the city's Discovery District. Construction is anticipated to commence during the second half of 2007.

The Phase II development will build on MaRS' growing success stimulating and harnessing the commercial potential of science and technology innovation in life sciences, advanced information and communications technologies, clean technologies, and materials sciences - that flows from the province's entrepreneurs, universities, hospitals and research institutes. Designed by Toronto-based Bregman + Hamann Architects, the building's high level of design responds to its critical importance as the gateway to Toronto's Discovery District and University Avenue corridor with an architectural vocabulary expressive of innovation and engagement. Combining a dynamic application of both reflective and transparent materials, exterior features include vertical glass fins inspired by optical magnetic imaging and nanotechnology that add modern texture while a lattice of terracotta at the podium level pays homage to the MaRS heritage building. In addition to providing state-of-the-art lab and office space, MaRS Phase II will also interact with the public with a "Jewel Box" exhibition space at the corner of University and College, as well as an urban plaza revitalizing University Avenue with a vital streetscape of landscaping, retail and cafés.

Colorado State University Awarded $40 Million Grant for Regional Center of Excellence in Infectious Disease Research

Colorado State University has received a four-year, $40 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to establish a Regional Center of Excellence (RCE) for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases research and training. The Rocky Mountain RCE will expand the University’s world-recognized work in infectious disease and biodefense research and address a national need for increased capacity to develop new vaccines, diagnostics and medicines for infectious diseases.

The Rocky Mountain RCE, which includes the states of Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming, will be a multi-disciplinary, highly interactive center for research and training to address national needs to counteract potential agents of emerging diseases and bioterrorism. The Rocky Mountain RCE will develop new vaccines, drugs, and diagnostics for emerging diseases; provide training in emerging diseases and biosecurity to scientists, physicians, veterinarians and other public health personnel throughout the region; and assist state and federal agencies in responding to emerging diseases.

The Rocky Mountain RCE will focus upon zoonotic emerging diseases, which are diseases of animals that are transmissible to humans. Zoonotic pathogens have been the source of almost all of the recent emerging diseases throughout the world, such as West Nile virus and Sin nombre hantavirus that have emerged in the Rocky Mountain Region in recent years. The Rocky Mountain RCE will provide a national and regional resource focusing upon the diagnosis, prevention and control of these types of diseases.

Rocky Mountain RCE scientists will work at their respective universities, state and federal agencies, and companies to develop new vaccines, drugs and diagnostic procedures for emerging disease pathogens, such as West Nile virus, equine encephalitis virus, hantaviruses, plague, drug resistant tuberculosis and tularemia, as well as other zoonotic diseases that could emerge as a consequence of natural or purposeful events.

Industrial partners and other collaborators will be able to utilize the state of the art facilities and expertise provided by the RCE and Colorado State’s advanced research laboratories to move their discoveries into commercial products quickly and safely, providing new products for biosecurity quickly and positively impacting economic growth in the region.

The RCE will complement and enhance similar research already underway on Colorado State’s Foothills Research Campus and at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – Division of Vector Borne Infectious Diseases, as well as the university’s Arthropod-borne and Infectious Diseases Laboratory and its Bioenvironmental Research Building.

In August 2004, the CDC broke ground on an $80 million, 156,000-square-foot facility dedicated to infectious disease research. In late 2003, Colorado State was awarded a $17 million grant from NIAID to construct a 33,850-square-foot Regional Biocontainment Laboratory to expand the university’s ongoing, world-recognized work in infectious disease and biosecurity research. The RCE will be housed primarily at this new laboratory which is expected to be completed in 2007. Additionally, Colorado State recently invested an additional $10 million to enhance its infectious disease research program.

The biodefense research grants announced by NIAID, one to Colorado State and the other to the University of California, Irvine, mark the completion of a national network of academic centers that conduct research to counter threats from emerging infectious diseases and bioterror agents. Each of the 10 Regional Centers for Excellence is a research consortium made up of universities and other research institutions within a geographic region. The other consortia-leading institutions in the network include Duke University, Harvard Medical School, New York State Department of Health, University of Chicago, University of Maryland, University of Texas Medical Branch (Galveston), University of Washington and Washington University in St. Louis.

Construction Under Way on New Biodiversity Center

Construction began on a new building at the private National Biodiversity Institute (INBio), a research center in the Central Valley town of Santo Domingo de Heredia, Costa Rica, thanks to a recent donation by the Korean Embassy.

The building, to be called the Center for Biodiversity Research, will house a new facility with high-tech tools dedicated to researching sustainable uses for Costa Rica's extraordinary biodiversity, according to a joint statement from the embassy and INBio.These could include the use of natural resources in the bio-technology and pharmaceutical fields.

Both countries hope the center will also provide training opportunities for Costa Rican citizens in related fields.

The Korean government donated $1 million for the building's construction and $5 million for continued research projects there, which it hopes to unravel over the course of 10 years.

AIDS Research Gets a Home at Brooklyn Army Terminal

Late last year, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, a global nonprofit company that hopes to speed the development of an H.I.V. vaccine, seemed on the verge of abandoning its plan to open a new laboratory in Brooklyn. The potential defection would have dealt a serious blow to the city’s long-running efforts to attract more well-paying biotechnology research and manufacturing businesses.

IAVI, as the company is known, was supposed to be an anchor tenant in a new bioscience center proposed for a 486,000-square-foot portion of the city-owned Brooklyn Army Terminal that has not been used since the Korean War. But that project — called BioBat — appeared to be stalled.

IAVI, however, had been awarded a $23.7 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and had an urgent need to get its lab up and running to meet the foundation’s deadlines. When the company began negotiating for space in Cranbury, N.J., city and state officials “finally realized that this was not an idle threat,” Mike Goldrich, IAVI’s chief operating officer, said in an interview in his downtown Manhattan office. “It was simply a matter of us meeting the responsibilities that we had.”

Ultimately, officials came up with a solution to keep IAVI in New York. Last week, IAVI signed a 15-year lease with the city for 36,000 square feet of space in the Army terminal — not in the undeveloped southern portion of Building A that had been earmarked for biotech but rather in eighth-floor space on the north side that had already been renovated for industrial use. The city will spend $12.5 million to build IAVI’s lab in time for the company to move in early next year.

City officials say that 114 biotech companies have a presence in New York, but most of them have offices just for marketing or clinical trials, not laboratories for research and development of new products. The city has only two incubators for start-up companies: the Audubon Business and Technology Center at Columbia University and the newer Advanced Biotechnology Park developed by SUNY Downstate Medical Center. Between them, they can accommodate about two dozen tenants.

Two major projects are intended to raise New York’s profile in the biotech industry. Construction began in January on East River Science Park, a 1.1-million-square-foot complex that Alexandria Real Estate Equities, a real estate investment trust that specializes in bioscience, is building between 28th and 29th Streets and First Avenue and Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive. The first phase is expected to be completed in 2009.

Last August, the city and state offered $54.5 million in subsidies toward creating a bioscience center at the Brooklyn Army Terminal. Officials said it would be designed for companies that had outgrown their incubator space and wanted to stay in New York but were unable or unwilling to pay Manhattan rents.

Designed by Cass Gilbert, who is best known for Beaux-Arts structures like the Woolworth Building in Lower Manhattan, the landmark Brooklyn Army Terminal is a more austere complex situated between Second Avenue and the waterfront and 58th and 65th Streets in an industrial section of the Sunset Park neighborhood. Consisting of two cavernous buildings with a total of four million square feet, it was completed in 1919 and served as a major supply depot and embarkation point during World War II.

The city and SUNY Downstate say that they are close to making a deal with Phase 3, a San Diego company with roots in the leasing end of the biotech business. Phase 3 assured officials that it could deliver the project for much less than the initial estimates, though the precise amount is still being worked out, said David Keith, the director of operations.

In April, Bank of America agreed to lend the project $36.1 million, according to Bob Herz, the legislative director for State Senator Martin J. Golden, a Republican from Brooklyn who has been a longtime champion of BioBat.

Phase 3’s development experience is limited. The company converted a hospital in San Diego into a bioscience center and in 2004 sold it to a REIT called BioMed Realty Trust, and it has another project in the works in Hawaii. But Phase 3 impressed officials by putting together a seasoned team, Mr. Herz said.

One member is T. H. Chang, strategic director of science and technology for the architecture firm HOK, who has been designing research buildings for 20 years. Mr. Chang said that BioBat’s cost could be reduced by getting “more usable space out of the structure” than was originally contemplated.

If the project goes forward, SUNY Downstate will take 40,000 square feet, some of which will be occupied by the Northeast Center for Disaster Preparedness, a training program for emergency personnel. Though the center may seem to have a tenuous connection with biotechnology, Eva Brown Cramer, a SUNY Downstate vice president, said that one component would involve the medical school’s research into equipping rats with cameras for surveillance.

Lonza to Spend More than $64 Million in Manufacturing Site Expansion

Lonza reports that it is expanding its production capacities for highly potent APIs. The new manufacturing site will be built in Visp, Switzerland. Lonza will invest more than CHF 80 million, or about $64.38 million, and expects to hire approximately 40 new employees until 2009 due to this investment.

Northeastern University Opened New Waters Mass Spectrometry Laboratory

Waters Corporation and Northeastern University, Milford, MA, opened the doors of the new Waters Mass Spectrometry Laboratory within the renowned Barnett Institute of Chemical and Biological Analysis at the University. The new laboratory is dedicated to studying protein shapes and characteristics to provide pharmaceutical and biotechnology innovators with the tools necessary to develop new treatment options for some of the world’s deadliest diseases, like AIDS and cancer.

Construction of Vietnamese National Labs

According to a government scheme, 17 key national labs were to be put into operation at the end of 2005, but as of this moment only two are fully operational.

In 2000 the Prime Minister approved the scheme to build key national laboratories based on the existing labs. Under this scheme, Vietnam was to have 17 laboratories by the end of 2005 but in fact, only ten labs are operating. According to La Van Chinh from the Ministry of Planning and Investment, of the ten labs that were checked and taken over, only two were completed in 2004, including the Genetic Technology Lab of the Biotechnology Institute and the Polymer & Composite Lab of the Hanoi University of Technology. “Only those two labs perform the functions of key national labs. The remaining labs are still operating like normal labs that are not different from they way they were in the past,” Mr Chinh commented.

Even the two above labs haven’t produced any practical inventions or scientific and technological advances yet.

The total investment for the 17 key national laboratories is more than VND1 trillion (US$62.5 million), averaging VND66 billion ($4.125 million) for each lab. The highest level of investment is VND170 billion ($10.625 million) in the ship model testing lab of the Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Corporation. Such huge investment is mainly for purchasing equipment.

According to Mr Chinh, equipment in Vietnam’s key national labs can compare to or even be more modern than that in labs in the region and the world.

The deadline has been changed to the end of 2008. At that snail-pace, thousands of billion dong of investment are being wasted. 17 key national laboratories focus on seven fields of science and technology, including biotechnology (five labs), information technology (3), material technology and engineering (4), petrochemistry and energy (2), and other fields (3).

German Research Foundation Approves Two New Nanotechnology Research Centers

The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) will establish eleven new Collaborative Research Centers (SFBs) on July 1, 2007. They will receive a total of 75.5 million euros (approx US$98 million) in funding over the next four years. Research conducted in the centers will include work on the reconstruction of biological body functions using versatile molecular switches and innovative optical technology. Four of the new SFBs will be Transregional Collaborative Research Centres, which are located at multiple sites. Two of the new centers specifically will deal with nanotechnology research: In Transregional Collaborative Research Centre 37 "Micro- and Nanosystems in Medicine – Reconstruction of Biologic Functions", researchers from the fields of medicine, material science and the natural sciences will investigate the development of new technologies and methods of treatment in regenerative medicine using laser and nanotechnology. The centre will be based in Hannover, Aachen and Rostock. (Host university: Hannover Medical School (MHH), Coordinator: Axel Haverich) The SFB 755 "Nanoscale Photonic Imaging" plans to investigate complex systems such as macromolecular fluids and living cells. Innovative optical techniques, which allow exceptionally high spatial or temporal resolution to be achieved or which use X-rays, are being developed for this study.

Stem Cell Research Facilities at UC San Diego Will Grow with $2.8-million Grant

The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Human Stem Cell Core Facility, which supports multiple research projects using stem cells to advance the understanding and ultimately the treatment of disease and injury, will receive a $2.8 million Shared Research Laboratory Grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). The funding will be used to upgrade the current core facility, and to support the establishment of a new satellite facility to expand the resources available to investigators.

The core facility, directed by Karl Willert, Ph.D., is integral to UC San Diego’s broad-based efforts in stem cell research, also called “regenerative medicine” due to the unique property of stem cells to regenerate into specific cell types that potentially could be used to repair and replace tissue damaged by disease or injury. The facility provides a specially equipped, centralized location for the maintenance of a number of established human embryonic stem cell lines, the training of scientists in basic techniques to work with these cells, and for dedicated laboratory space, technology and support for research utilizing stem cells.

A portion of the funding will be used to purchase new equipment and upgrade the existing core facility laboratory, which is utilized by a growing number of investigators from a variety of disciplines. Research projects underway at UC San Diego include the potential use of stem cells in the treatment of cancer, Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s disease, spinal cord repair, and other diseases that today are considered incurable.

The grant will also support the creation of a new 2,775 square-foot satellite core facility to be located in UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering. The laboratory will build on the research and expertise of faculty from Bioengineering and other departments in the Jacobs School, and from the Division of Physical Sciences. Faculty researchers in these departments include experts in new technologies such as nanotechnology, biomaterials, instrumentation, bioreactors and tissue engineering, all key to the stem cell research effort.

The UC San Diego project was one of 17 Shared Research Laboratories grants announced today by the 28-member Independent Citizens Oversight Committee (ICOC), governing board of the (CIRM). The committee approved grants totaling approximately $50 million to researchers at academic and non-profit research centers throughout the state. The grants – selected from among 22 applications from California institutions – are designed to fund dedicated laboratory space for the culture and maintenance of hESC lines, in particular lines that fall outside of the Federal research guidelines and therefore ineligible for support from the National Institutes of Health.

Board Approves Construction for Spanish River Bio-Tech Academy

Next school year, Spanish River Community High School in Boca Raton will house a new building with labs and the latest technology. The Palm Beach County School Board recently approved a $488,245 construction contract with Horus Construction Services, Inc. for Spanish River Bio-Tech Academy Addition project. This means construction will begin this summer for the new Bio-Tech Academy. Demolition is required for renovation of an existing lecture hall on campus to add the new Biotechnology Academy, with space for laboratory and classrooms. The estimated construction cost is approximately $2.6 million.

Quintiles to Expand in Scotland

Quintiles Transnational Corp. plans to build a new office near Edinburgh for its product development business in Scotland, including Quintiles Laboratories, and its NovaQuest group. The company will add 150 jobs in Scotland during the next four years and is investing $13 million in the new building.

The new 112,000-sq.-ft. facility will be built in Livingston, West Lothian, near the company's existing 36,500-sq.-ft. lab in Bathgate. Approximately 80,000 square feet will be used for the laboratory business and the product development and NovaQuest personnel will move into the new building and will occupy about 25,000 square feet. Quintiles will have 390 employees at the two locations.

Quintiles will sign a 15-year lease for the facility and is receiving a $2.4 million Regional Selective Assistance Grant from the Scottish Executive. Under terms of the grant agreement, Quintiles has agreed to add 150 jobs.

Genzyme to Build Biomanufacturing Plant in France for Thymoglobulin

Genzyme will build a new biomanufacturing plant in Lyon, France, for the production of Thymoglobulin® (Anti-thymocyte Globulin [Rabbit]), a treatment used in transplantation. The facility is needed to meet the anticipated long-term demand for Thymoglobulin, both for its current use and in potential new indications.

The new 140,000-sq-ft facility in Lyon will replace Genzyme’s smaller plant in nearby Marcy l’Etoile and will provide more than twice the manufacturing capacity. Approximately 165 people are employed at the existing Thymoglobulin plant, and Genzyme expects that approximately 50 new jobs will be created when the new facility operates at full capacity. The total cost of the project is expected to be €105 million.

The new plant will be located within the Lyon-Gerland Biopôle, an area dedicated to biotechnology. The facility will be situated on a nine-acre site, which will allow Genzyme to expand the plant if needed, as it has done at a number of its other manufacturing locations. Construction is expected to begin later this year, and regulatory approvals are expected starting in 2010. Routine manufacturing at the site is expected to commence in 2011.

Troax Develops High Quality Cleanroom Solution for Abbott Diabetes Care

Troax UK Limited has developed a high quality cleanroom solution for global healthcare company Abbot Diabetes Care at its manufacturing facility in Witney, Oxfordshire. A series of new cleanrooms, used for the manufacture of diabetes monitoring equipment, has been constructed using Troax’s new Toledo partitioning system.

For this extension to Abbot’s existing production facility, Toledo double skin-steel partitioning was used to construct a series of eight separate, cleanroom areas (covering an area of over 5,380 sq. ft. (500 sq metres), where test strips used in Abbott’s FreeStyle blood glucose monitoring systems are manufactured.

Toledo steel partitioning provided an ideal solution for the project, which demanded a high standard of construction to ensure a controlled cleanroom environment.

The medium specification system is of steel, monobloc construction and uses inert and non-particle shedding finish. To prevent the collection of particles and ensure easy to clean, smooth surfaces, Toledo’s two - line junction has a flush line cover channel and a flush line double glazing system, resulting in minimal ledges, corners and flush surfaces.

Automatic sliding doors, also constructed from Toledo panels and fitted with circular vision panels, allow access to the cleanrooms while double glazed panels have been incorporated into the design to create a light and airy working environment.

The project was carried out in conjunction with Martins Fixings and according to project manager Tony Gavin, Troax’s Toledo system has provided a flexible and cost-effective new method of constructing this type of cleanroom.

GE to Build NY X-Ray Plant

General Electric (GE) Healthcare plans to build a facility to make digital x-ray mammography machines at Rensselaer Technology Park in North Greenbush, N.Y., near Albany.

The 150,000-sq-ft facility, to be built by GE, will reportedly employ 150 people with a total annual payroll of approximately $10 million and could create as many as 300 construction jobs. About 35,000 sq ft of the plant will be cleanroom space. Construction will begin this fall, and the facility is expected to open in fall 2008.

A total $135 million will be invested in the facility, including $75 million for construction and $40 million for equipment. GE Healthcare estimates it will make additional plant and equipment investments of $20 million over the next 10 years. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will contribute an estimated $1.5 million to anticipated road, sewer and water infrastructure improvements at the technology park.

Cornell gets $25 Million for Life Sciences Research

Cornell University is receiving $25 million from the chairman of its trustees and his family to help recruit, hire and support life-sciences researchers, the university announced.

The donation, announced on the eve of commencement weekend, was termed by the university as a "pivotal new gift" in Cornell's initiative to improve and raise the profile of its life-sciences research and teaching. That initiative includes a 240,000-square-foot life sciences center on its main campus in Ithaca, scheduled to open later this year, hiring new faculty, and increasing collaborations among researchers and teachers in its various colleges. It includes not only traditional biology and human and veterinary medicine, but such fields as computer science and nanotechnology. To support it, Cornell has a fundraising campaign with the goal of $600 million under way.

Major Expansion at Fort Detrick for Biodefense

Fort Detrick, which houses the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, is in the midst of a major expansion that is expected to add about 1,400 more employees in the next few years. The Department of Homeland Security is building a 160,000-square-foot National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center expected to be completed next year, and other projects are in the works. Some $373 million in construction projects is planned at Fort Detrick in the next three years.

MedImmune Expands Manufacturing

Gaithersburg biotechnology company MedImmune is working on a $250 million expansion of its manufacturing plant in Frederick that is expected to roughly double the company’s workforce there to about 450 when the project is finished next year. MedImmune’s recent $15.2 billion deal to be purchased by AstraZeneca plc of London should not affect that expansion.

To help startups businesses grow, the Frederick Innovative Technology Center opened a second business incubator in March in 11,000 square feet on Metropolitan Court.

Jubilant Acquires Hollister-Stier

In what’s been billed as the largest overseas acquisition in contract manufacturing sector by an Indian company, Hollister-Stier Laboratories LLC, a Spokane, WA-based contract manufacturer of sterile injectable vials and lyophilization products, was acquired by Jubilant Organosys Ltd., an integrated pharmaceuticals industry player and one of the largest Custom Research and Manufacturing Services (CRAMS) and Drug Discovery and Development Services companies out of India. The purchase price was $122.5 million, with an additional $16 million in capital commitments that will reportedly be put toward the completion of a $30 million, 50,000-square-foot plant expansion begun last year at Hollister-Stier’s 20-acre campus, and a second production line.

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