Pharma-Bio Industry to Inject $2 Billion Investment for Capital & Maintenance Project Starts in Third-Quarter 2014

Reported by Annette Kreuger, Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The pharmaceutical-biotech sector continues to deliver big in capital and maintenance (MRO) project investments. For the third quarter of 2014, the industry is on tap to kick-off construction on 199 projects in North America, with a total investment value of just more than $2 billion.

Click on image at right for a regional breakdown of planned North American Pharmaceutical-Biotech Projects in third-quarter 2014.

What makes these figures all the more remarkable is that while launching virtually the same number of projects, third-quarter 2014 has almost double the TIV from the same period last year, when a total of 200 projects with a combined TIV of $1.3 billion began construction, according to Industrial Info's Pharmaceutical-Biotech project database.

The projects are varied as to intent, ranging from regularly scheduled maintenance programs to a new cardiovascular therapeutic manufacturing plant. As always, there are a fair amount of research facilities sourced out in both the higher-education and commercial sectors, as well as a number of expansions in medical-device production.

In Knoxville, Tennessee, Fresenius Medical Care North America (Waltham, Massachusetts) is on board to invest $140 million to add a dialysis medical products plant. The project will include renovating a 280,000-square-foot building formerly occupied by Panasonic. The company will use the plant's output to help supply its East coast market.

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United Therapeutics (Durham, North Carolina) will launch construction of its $50 million "Xeno" project in Durham. On the 140-acre former GlaxoSmithKline site, and adjacent to its own existing campus, the company will construct a 230,000-square-foot, star-shaped (central hub with six spokes), Designated Pathogen-Free (DPF) facility to process swine lungs for human transplantation.

In terms of geographic locations for the projects, the Great Lakes region has snared the top spot, with $570 million invested in 28 projects. The region's standing was boosted by projects such as the planned $40 million investment by AtriCure (West Chester, Ohio) to build an implantable cardiac medical devices plant in Mason, Ohio.

New England claims second place, with 17 projects worth $377 million. Mannkind Corporation (Danbury, Connecticut) will invest $100 million to expand production at its Danbury Inhaled insulin manufacturing plant.

The Mid-Atlantic region completes the top three, with $368 million spread over 25 projects. In addition to the aforementioned United Therapeutics project, the region's other activity includes the Catalent Pharma Solutions (Durham, North Carolina) plan to invest $22 million to renovate and upfit its six-building, 200,000-square-foot campus in Morrisville. The project will support production of multi-dosage forms of pressurized metered dose inhalers (pMDI) for the treatment of asthma, sinusitis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

There is a chance, of course, that some of these projects will be delayed or put on hold. Yet in all likelihood, the majority eventually will proceed as planned, as most have funding and project teams in place. Even allowing for occasional lengthy delays, the sector has a strong history of projects making it off the white board to actual construction.

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