Local Groups Hope To Lure Biopharma Plant
The Massachusetts Alliance for Economic Development has issued a request for proposals on behalf of an unnamed company seeking to establish a 650,000-square-foot manufacturing plant for biopharmaceutical research and development, including vivo animal testing.
One local organization and another development group have responded to the RFP. Choose Worcester, a nonprofit aimed at luring companies to the city, responded to the request by pitching a site out near the Worcester Regional Airport.
Meanwhile, the company that runs the Grafton Science Park for Tufts University’s Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine has pitched its development as an ideal locale.
The MAED has a web site where companies can anonymously list what they’re looking for in a site, no matter what type of business they are.
The RFP states that the site must be able to provide 12,500 therms of natural gas a month and the average daily water use is 20,000 liters and its waste discharge is estimated to be 10,000 pounds a month. The building needs to be between 60 and 90 feet high. It must be a flat site and be zone for bio-manufacturing.
Several years ago, Bristol-Myers Squibb posted the same sort of request for available properties when it was looking to locate its newest $750 million biotech manufacturing plant, which ended up at Devens. Mass .Development was one of eight entities that responded with proposals.
Biotech Funding Apps Due In March
It will be a Happy New Year for some biotech and drug companies beginning this month as the Massachusetts Life Science Center begins taking applications for its first round of funding, which totals $15 million.
The funding was originally supposed to be $25 million, but like everything else these days, it had to be reduced due to the state’s budget deficit.
A company must apply for certification as a life sciences company to get any dollars from the center, but there are a number of different grants available. The application covers both the certification process and the specific grant the company is interested in.
There are acceleration grants for start-ups and innovation grants for companies of all sizes. The applications must be completed by March and the center will award the money in May.
Johnson & Johnson has contributed $500,000 to add to the $15 million, and the center expects more corporate partners to help their money go further.
Companies can also apply for $25 million in tax incentives.
It’s not clear how many companies will decide to locate in Massachusetts based on these grants, but it will be interesting to see how many say it was deciding factor once they’re here.
Incubator Has No Vacancy
Smaller biotech companies that are already here certainly seem to be doing well. The Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives incubator here in Worcester has a full house for the first time. The nonprofit is even turning one of their offices in the Barber Street incubator into a lab, according to Kevin O’Sullivan, MBI’s president and CEO.
O’Sullivan has noticed that smaller companies that can do work for larger companies, whether it be conducting animal experiments or developing new drugs, are doing very well. They’re nimbler and the quality of their work is usually very high, so big companies see them as a way to get work done more quickly, he said.
Bolton Lands New Company
In small biotech company news, Bolton will be home temporarily to one small business because its founder lives there. David A. Weitz, a non-stop entrepreneur, recently founded GnuSeq Inc., a company that will use microfluidics to help in gene sequencing.
Weitz is a co-founder of Raindance Technologies, which moved to Lexington from Connecticut to take advantage of economic incentives for life sciences companies and to place itself close to a community of scientists.
Raindance’s technology produces picoliter volume droplets, each of which can function like an individual test tube containing a single molecule, reaction or cell. The company says its technology lets researchers work faster with fewer errors.
In July, he also founded HAbSel Inc., also in Bolton. It’s a company that uses microfluidics to discover human antibodies.
Policy Meeting Planned
Biotech companies interested in becoming involved in federal issues that affect the life sciences industry can attend the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council’s annual policy leadership luncheon on Jan 28 in Boston.
The council will be rolling out its 2009 Federal Issues White Paper, which will provide an overview of the issues it will focus on this year. State and federal policymakers as well as CEOs from top biotech companies usually attend this event.
Got news for our Biotech Buzz column? E-mail Staff Writer Eileen Kennedy at ekennedy@wbjournal.com.
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