Texas Round-Up: Lone Star State Ropes in Over $1.1 Billion in Capital Projects from Pharmaceutical-Biotech Sector

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Reported by Annette Kreuger, Industrial Info Resources, Incorporated (Sugar Land, Texas). While more commonly known as the land where oil and chemical industry workers roam, the state of Texas is steadily becoming home to a growing number of scientists from the pharmaceutical and biotech fields. A recent survey of active capital projects ( Pharmaceutical Tracker - Online Database) with construction starts scheduled from January 2006 and beyond, has revealed a healthy mix of public and private projects.

Click on the image at right to view a breakdown of Texas Pharma-Biotech spending by county.

Underscoring the truth to the old adage - Everything is bigger in Texas - the projects carry an impressive average total investment value (TIV) of $51 million. Harris County, home to Houston and the renowned Texas Medical Center, has snagged the majority of current planned spending activity.

BioHouston, the local biotechnology industry organization, is doing a successful job of raising the city’s profile as an important life science destination. Of the area’s eight current projects, all of which are in various stages of development, five are from the academic sector. These elaborate state-of-the-art research laboratory projects include a $200 million pediatric research facility being planned by Texas Children’s Hospital. Funding for nearly all of the university projects is drawn from a combination of public and private sources.

Pasadena, also located within Harris County and currently the address of a proliferation of heavy chemical processing plants, was chosen by Kaneka Nutrients LP (Pasadena, Texas) as the site for an $80 million COQ10 Nutritional manufacturing plant. In the final stages of validation, the new plant will be unique to the area for its clean manufacturing standards right from the start, and all production processes will meet strict cGMP standards. (Reference December 6, 2004 news article: Kaneka Gives Texas Gulf Coast an Extreme Makeover from Petrochem to Biochem with Construction of $80 Million Nutritionals Plant) Kaneka has expressed preliminary plans for further expansion of the plant.

Houston managed to lasso in Lyme Properties LLC (Cambridge, Massachusetts), with it plans for a giant $100 million life science research campus near the Medical Center. Lyme gained its reputation as life science powerhouse with its success developing massive life science development activities in the Boston area. Yankee pedigree aside, Houston has given the company and its investment dollars a warm welcome.

The remaining current projects are scattered throughout the state. Texas A&M (College Station, Texas) has just broken ground on a new Genomics Research Center in collaboration with Lexicon Genetics (OTC:LEXI)(The Woodlands, Texas) and has a number of other life science projects in the hopper. The largest of the planned projects is a $100 million life science center scheduled to begin construction later this year.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is a Marketing Information Service company that has been doing business for over 23 years. IIR is respected as the leader in providing comprehensive market intelligence pertaining to the industrial processing, heavy manufacturing, and energy-related industries throughout the world.