Plant building, expansions show growing global business

Announcements of new facilities and expansions appear to be gaining momentum. The construction work is taking place around the world.

In Baltimore, Emergent BioSolutions said last week it's planning major renovations to a 55,000-square-foot facility that will help extend the company's reach beyond bioterror defense products. It estimates a cost of $30 million to remodel labs and possibly expand the site's footprint. The company says it expects to create 120 jobs over the next five years at the facility, adding to the company's 400 workers at a manufacturing plant in Lansing, MI, and 70 at an R&D facility in Gaithersburg, MD.

Emergent bought the Baltimore facility for $8.2 million from the MdBio Foundation late last year. Five existing labs will be combined into two for the manufacture of viral and non-viral vaccines.

Another vaccine maker, Melbourne, Australia-based CSL says it will undertake a $235 million expansion at a biopharma research complex thanks to state and federal aid. The expansion augments the company's presence in 27 countries and is intended as a long-term investment for work on cancer, hematology, and inflammation drugs.

In Indonesia, state pharma company PT Bio Farma says it will spend Rp 500 billion on a factory for the blood plasma derivatives Albumin and Factor IX. The plant is said to be the first of its kind in Indonesia and is based on processes used at South Korean and Australian drug companies. The company currently produces seven types of vaccines, about 40 percent of which reach the domestic market.

Earlier this month, Genzyme described plans for a 757,000-square-foot expansion at its Framingham, MA, facility for manufacturing, R&D and office space. The big biopharma says it plans to add 600 workers.  And Sanofi-Aventis recently said it will build a plant in Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah Economic City to produce diabetes and cardiovascular drugs.

- here's the Emergent story
- see the CSL article
- read this article on PT Bio Farma

Related Articles:
Sanofi to build new plant in Saudi Arabia
Genzyme maps big plans for R&D, manufacturing expansion