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Pfizer
St. Louis broke ground in November 2005 on a new 333,000-square-foot
research building that will be completed in late 2008.
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BIOTECH RESEARCH
FACILITIES
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By Linda F.
Jarrett
Researchers and scientists around the country are finding that besides
beer and baseball, St. Louis has added “BioBelt” to the list.
One has only to read about the stem cell issue or the proposed CORTEX
biotech district to realize how much scientific research is invested
in this area, and what it will mean in terms of dollars and prestige
in years to come.
Pfizer St. Louis broke ground in November on a new 333,000-square-foot
research building that will be completed in late 2008. The facility,
located in Chesterfield, Mo. will house 250 researchers focusing
on potential medicines to treat cardiovascular disease, respiratory
diseases, pain and inflammation, and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary
disease. This facility is Pfizer’s fourth location in the area.
Ed Bryant, senior advisor and public affairs officer says that the
company would be aggregating the majority of researchers from the
other sites and locating them at the Chesterfield location, Pfizer’s
global HQ for early stage biotech.
“The whole BioBelt/life sciences initiative is taking advantage
of the good things that St. Louis has,” Bryant says. “We’re located
in the center of the country, which is good for distribution, and
we have some good for-profit companies such as ourselves, Monsanto,
and Centocor doing work in a variety of different areas.
“Plus having institutions like Saint Louis University and Washington
University make the region more attractive to people who might decide
to build their careers here,” he says. “Keeping that intellectual
capital here in this region is good for everyone. We’re not just
working on drug discoveries for St. Louisans. We’re all working
for people across the globe.”
In midsummer 2007, Saint Louis University (SLU) will debut its $64
million, 206,000-square-foot biomedical Research Building at the
corner of Grand and Chouteau avenues in Midtown St. Louis.
“This is an excellent project,” says Bob Clark, CEO of Clayco who
is the general contractor. “The architecture is very modern and
contemporary. Merging the building’s real needs with the architecture
is key to making a project like this successful. Cannon is the architect,
and they’re doing a fantastic job.”
Jeff Fowler, associate vice-president of university marketing and
communications at SLU, says the university will focus on five areas
of research in this building.
- Cancer
and molecular and structural biology.
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Heart and pulmonary diseases.
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Infectious disease and biodefense.
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Liver disease.
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Neuroscience and aging.
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“We’re doing
some cutting-edge research, particularly in the areas of infectious
diseases and vaccine development,” Fowler says. “This building will
allow us to do more collaborative research, but it won’t be insular.
There will be collaboration between various areas, and the building
design and construction will allow teams to do that. It will be
a state-of-the-art building in terms of research and, hopefully,
will enable us to get more federal research dollars to work on these
types of projects. The top researchers are going into that building.”
These researchers moving into the new building will open up some
space which could be put to good use.
Joe Zahner, director of the Office of Innovation and Intellectual
Properties at SLU, said that the university is looking at the possibility
of developing some of these vacated pre-incubator spaces for biotech
start-up companies.
“The idea behind the pre-incubator is to give some separation between
the investigators’ publicly-funded labs and their private ventures,”
he says. “We’ll try to set these guys up for working with BioGenerator,
SLU or the Washington University’s Bear Cub, plus do some preseed
funding. This will prepare these companies to go into CET (Center
for Emerging Technologies), NIDUS Center, CORTEX or their own space,
so the critical component is to help prepare these folks.”
SLU presently leases space to faculty start-up companies now with
the approval of the department chairman, Zahner says. “And it has
to be of collegial benefit.”
McCarthy Building Companies has found a niche in pilot plant and
production for companies in the region. Recently completed projects
include:
- Sigma-Aldrich
Corp. St. Louis, Mo. $6.5 million cold rooms upgrade
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Centocor Biologics St. Louis, Mo. FDA validated purification
suites and drug material storage
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Sigma-Aldrich St. Louis, Mo. $9 million cold room renovations
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Pfizer Inc. Chesterfield, Mo. $12 million bio-processing
facility upgrade
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Describing a
“pilot plant,” Tom Kreher, vice president of Science and Technology
for McCarthy, says to “picture a researcher standing at a bench
top mixing vials. The next step is scaling up to research and more
testing, then they will build the production plant and actually
put their results into production.”
Kreher says McCarthy has developed their niche in the biopharma
industry. “We’re able to go into to facilities and renovate and
not disrupt operation and production which could be millions of
dollars a day in revenue to the company.
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Saint
Louis University’s new biomedical Research Building
will debut in 2007. |
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“How we do that is driven by protocols on how we execute construction,”
he said. “The clients have recognized that approach and they understand
how that lowers their risk in managing a facility and keeping it
in production.”
Kreher complimented St. Louis on its efforts to bring more research
to the region and attributes it to two factors. “First, we’ve got
a great university research base here with Washington University
and Saint Louis University, and this is starting to get recognition.
I think the Regional Chamber of Growth Association (RCGA), the St.
Louis Development Corporation and CORTEX are making great strides
in attracting new businesses to St. Louis by keeping and enhancing
business people and corporations to stay here, as opposed to the
flight we’ve seen in the past.
“Also,” he says, “I think the economy is turning the corner and
creating more opportunity. Guys like Pfizer, while not St. Louis-based,
have recognized the attributes of St. Louis. They recognize the
work ethic and talent of people in St. Louis by supporting the facilities
that they have, plus the cost competitiveness in all these facilities.”
CH2MHill/Lockwood Green is a global company that does laboratory
work for corporate, government, and universities with a focus in
pharmaceutical and biotechnological business. Some of their local
projects include the Sigma-Aldrich Life Sciences Center and the
Pfizer HH Building.
Robert Orgera, principle architect, says most companies over the
last 15 years have begun to realize that there was “some inefficiency
in the way they handed things off from the pure discovery side to
the manufacturing side. The manufacturers have taken a more serious
look at how you move from one side to the other, so they can refine
the process.”
The Sigma project, he says, was on the discovery end of the spectrum.
“They have development labs, and their research labs are both chemical
and biological. They also have set up flexi-labs where the lab can
be converted to whatever is their necessary use and they can get
a team of chemists and biologists working on a similar therapy area.
They’re trying to encourage cross-pollinization or cross-disciplinary
teams working on the same kinds of therapeutic research.”
With Pfizer, Orgera says they renovated the existing building to
provide for research labs for human health products. They are also
presently doing some work for Mallinckrodt-Tyco Healthcare that
is also an existing older facility.
“Their facility doesn’t meet current criteria and guidelines,” he
says. “So we have to look at the finishes that are being used in
the different operating areas, and the HVAC system is critical to
a lab because of the environment. The air and temperature and humidity
have to be controlled so you are guaranteed that whatever research
you are doing isn’t contaminated by the environment within the room.”
Across the river, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE)
shows a lot of promising action in the biotechnology field as well.
Their School of Pharmacy has added a new 15,000-square-foot facility
where they house active research programs in areas such as diabetes,
molecular biology, genomics, and drug delivery service.
“We have programs that are researching areas such as drug development
and discovery, says Dr. Mike Crider, Associate Dean for Research
and Chair of Pharmaceutical Sciences. “We have a faculty member
involved in diabetes research. One of her areas is to look at the
beta cells in the pancreas, and in this way, she is studying methods
to either treat or prevent Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.”
Other researchers are studying how obesity is related to insulin
resistance, and how to improve the methods by which drugs reach
their site of action.
Also with SIUE is the new $1.6 million Biotechnology Laboratory
Incubator located on the 330-acre University Park.
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The
launch of the Biotechnology Laboratory Incubator (wet
labs). SIUE Chancellor Vaughn Vandegrift at
the podium. |
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R.W. Boeker Co. Inc. is general contractor of the 11,067-square-foot
facility, Christner Inc. is architect and William Tao Associates
is consulting engineer.
The building will hold 12 wet labs, each one at 850 square feet,
but only one will be built-out and equipped, says James Pennekamp,
special assistant to the chancellor for regional economic development
and executive director of University Park.
“The idea was to build the shell, design it to have maximum flexibility.
Equipping one space and renting it will generate cash flow income
that allows you to keep building space to tenant specification,”
he says.
The project, which is being funded by the Illinois Department of
Commerce and Economic Opportunity, is designed for an emerging company,
Pennekamp says.
“We looked at the infrastructure necessary for these cutting-edge
companies, but we found that we didn’t have enough of this kind
of real estate for the St. Louis region,” he says. “We knew there
was demand, and historically there has been interest in this kind
of space. We have already had inquiries. If you want biotech companies,
whether you grow them yourself or attract them, you have to have
infrastructure and the synergies that create the opportunities.
“In our case, we have the School of Pharmacy, as well as the National
Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center,” he says. “So when you ask who
could be interested in the wet lab space, it could be any number
of any types of companies.”
From a real estate facilities perspective, the St. Louis region
has positioned itself to be a leader in research across the board,
and this promises to put the area at the top of the list in the
biotechnological industry. |
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