Cook Pharmica Begins $45 Million Transformation of Indiana Electronics Manufacturing Site into Biopharmaceutical Contract Plant

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Construction is underway on the $45 million first phase by Cook Pharmica LLC, a division of the Cook Group Incorporated (Bloomington, Indiana) to establish a contract manufacturing plant. RL Turner of Zionsville, Indiana, is the construction manager of the project, who is building the new facility on the site of the former Thomson Consumer Electronics facility, which was considered one of the world’s largest television assembly plants.

Both the city of Bloomington and the state of Indiana offered strong financial incentives for the project, in the form of tax abatement and infrastructure assistance. Once the initial phase is completed in 2006, Cook expects to employ 200 in the plant, which will utilize a process known as mammalian cell fermentation, from which batches of cells will be grown that are genetically engineered to produce biopharmaceutical products, such as vaccines or drugs.

If Cook proceeds with its conceptual plans for further expansion, carrying a total investment value of $200 million and the establishment of a 430,000 square-foot plant, the site could eventually employ almost 600, which would partially replace the estimated 1,000 jobs lost when Thomson closed the plant in 1998 and moved its operations to Mexico.

In Indiana, the Pharmaceutical & Biotech Industry is planning $426 million in project spending for new facilities, expansions, and upgrades of existing plants, according to Industrialinfo.com's North American Industrial Database. Click on the image at right to view a chart showing a breakdown of this spending by County.

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