From Bootscootin' to Biotech: Lone Star Life Science Investment Tops $1.6 Billion in 2016 Project Starts

Reported by Annette Kreuger, Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--High-tech laboratories and advanced drug manufacturing plants are not usually the first thing that comes to mind when people think of Texas. But, as the numbers reveal, there is a whole lot more to the Lone Star state than cowboy boots, longhorns and the state's strong refining and chemicals industry cluster. The life science sector is staking its claim in a big way.

Click the image on the right for the top Texas counties in 2016 pharma project kickoffs.

By the time 2016 comes to a close, 51 projects worth a cumulative $1.6 billion, will have begun construction. That total is nearly three times the $574 million worth that launched in 2015. The projects range from $1 million annual maintenance programs all the way up to a $150 million bio manufacturing plant.

Why is this happening? A variety of reasons, including sweet incentive deals by cities and a state that wants to be known as "Open for Business". Texas offers an almost unparalleled logistics platform, whether by land, rail or sea, and the infrastructure is in place to efficiently move virtually every kind of product from anywhere in the vast state.

Adding to the mix of activity is the number of public institutions upping their investment in constructing research laboratories that not only train tomorrow's scientists, but actively work on developing therapeutics that can eventually be turned into an income-producing drug product. Drug companies support these efforts for obvious reasons. Some go as far as to help fund business incubators to house promising start-ups.

Some of the projects co-mingle with the state's more expected industries. Such is the case of BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany) and the manufacturing campus it shares with Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE) (Irving, Texas) in Bishop, Texas. BASF is investing $30 million to expand its two-building ibuprofen production facility. The expansion will add two 17,000-square-foot buildings to increase production of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) , including, Ibuprofen DC 85, Sodium Ibuprofen di-Hydrate, 4-ydroxyacetophenone,2-Hydroxyacetophenone and Phenyl Acetate (current capacity approximately 8 million pounds per year). The company may possibly debottleneck the existing facility as well.

In Pearland, Lonza Group (Basel, Switzerland) decided to invest $150 million on a new plant to house viral and immunotherapy development and manufacturing. When complete, the site will offer process development, quality-control laboratories and a fully segregated fill/finish suite, essentially doubling the company's current capacity for the production of viral gene and virally modified therapeutics. The facility's eight modular cleanrooms will allow for up to 2,000 L-scale production in single-use bioreactors, along with cleanrooms designed to meet the requirements for the manufacture of cell therapy products for use in both the U.S. and European markets.

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