Life Science Sector Bets Big on Bay State: $5.5 billion Active CAPEX Facility Investment in Massachusetts

Reported by Annette Kreuger, Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The state of Massachusetts is celebrated for many things, including its natural beauty, leading academic institutions and its abundant historical sites. Not to be overlooked is its importance to the entire life science industry. From bio wet-lab incubators housing nascent biotechs, all the way up to vast commercial manufacturing complexes, the state comes up a winner in attracting the industry's capital construction dollars.

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Are there more inexpensive alternatives to Massachusetts to build and run a drug manufacturing plant or research center? Of course there are, but even as today's drug companies are allegedly running more fiscally lean operations, for many, the state, especially Boston and Cambridge, is the place to be.

Click the image at right for a graph detailing life science projects in Massachusetts.

Boasting a veritable who's who of the world's largest drug makers, Boston and Cambridge proper can and do demand rents approaching $70 per square foot for leased life science space. Move a little further out of the metro area and one will find sprawling manufacturing plants that cost upwards of $700 per square foot to build. Spread out further still from that burgeoning hub and there remains a wide range of capital investment, as encompassing in scope and purpose as the Pharmaceutical & Biotech Industry itself.

In Rowley, New England Biolabs (Ipswich, Mass) is investing $18 million to construct a grassroot plant to produce recombinant and native enzymes (including bacterial fermentation) for genomic research and other related disciplines. The project team includes BushWang Architects LLC (Cambridge, Mass) and Columbia Construction Company (North Reading, Mass). Construction began in Late last year and should finish in early 2017.

The city of Andover is waiting with bated breath as Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) (New York, New York) works through a site assessment to determine if it will be the location for a $200 million expansion of the existing 8-building, 70-acre site. The project would add a 150,000 square-foot flexible space building, equipped for the clinical- and commercial-scale production and R&D of biotherapeutics, pharmaceuticals and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs), including coagulation factor IX, rhBMP & polysaccharides. A final decision is not expected before the end of this year.

The Pittsfield Economic Development Authority is reviewing plans to a 20,000 square-foot life science incubator within the William Stanley Business Park, the former General Electric Campus. The $10 million project would house multiple start-ups, with a focus on emerging medical device companies.

Startups flock to any available wet lab space in the incubators popping up everywhere all of the city, all in hopes of uncovering the drug, 'that" drug, that will attract the majors into a lucrative partnership or astounding acquisition deal. The universities are on board, often partnering with the drug companies to build stunning state of the art research laboratories.

University laboratories not only keep the available supply of intellectual capital at its peak, they also seek discovery of therapeutics or treatment for various maladies. Which in turn can lead to a stream of serious cash if it's potential is turned into a product that can be commercialized by big pharma. A symbiotic relationship at its finest.

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