Texas Ropes in More Than $750 Million Pharmaceutical-Biotech Industry Capital Project Starts for 2005

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). The world-renowned Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo may be coming to an end, but construction activity for new life science research and manufacturing facilities in the great state of Texas is just heating up! As discussed in Industrialinfo.com's *New - 2005 Pharmaceutical-Biotech Forecast, there has been a trend to move out beyond the traditional pharmaceutical-biotech locations, such as North Carolina or the New England Region, and the state hopes more companies will be hanging up signs of..."gone to Texas..."

Texas is determined to establish itself as more than the land where chemical and oil-field workers roam. The city of Galveston and the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) won a national wrangle when UTMB was chosen to be one of two sites for the construction of a $180 million National Biocontainment Laboratory.

Houston and Harris County, have managed to lasso the greatest number of projects in the state - a total of seven - that carry a $339 million price tag. The largest of the area's projects thus far scheduled to begin construction in 2005 is Lyme Properties LLC's plans for a giant $100 million life science research campus near the famed Houston Medical Center. Lyme is noted for its massive life science development activities in the Boston area. Yankee heritage aside, the company and its investment dollars have been welcomed with open arms.

Click on the image at right to view a chart showing 2005 Pharmaceutical & Biotech Industry project spending by county in Texas.

Pasadena, Texas, previously home to the notorious Gilley's 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. The facility will be unique to the area for its clean manufacturing standards right from the start, and all production processes will meet strict cGMP standards. Reported December 6, 2004 by Industrialinfo.com, both in the news see Kaneka Gives Texas Gulf Coast an Extreme Makeover from Petrochem to Biochem with Construction of $80 Million Nutritionals Plant, and via detailed project reports found in the Pharmaceutical Tracker - Online Database, the company has initial plans for further expansion of the plant.

The Austin area isn't staying home from the dance, as both the private and pubic sectors invest in new facilities. Ambion Incorporated (Austin, Texas) is considering yet another expansion of its molecular reagents diagnostics research and production capacity. The company added an estimated 80 jobs last year and currently offers over a dozen openings on its website. The University of Texas Austin has tapped the Beck Group of Dallas to build a $38 million research center focusing on nano and molecular science.

Texas has always been bigger than life in so many areas, from its sheer size to its role in helping put man on the moon, that it is a stretch to imagine the state will be successful in its latest quest to be the biggest and the best. The cost of living is extremely affordable and there is nothing hayseed at all about the vast amount of strong intellectual capital and solid universities and medical facilities to be found throughout the state. If the state's enduring history of "can do" is any indication, it's a sure bet that down the road a growing number of life science companies will post signs stating,..."gone to Texas..."

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