MilliporeSigma, a Merck unit, has opened its new $317.2 million biosafety testing facility in Rockville, Md. Developed by Alexandria Actual Property, the 260,000-square-foot undertaking represents the life science firm’s largest funding in contract testing in historical past.
The property will home biosafety testing, analytical growth and cell banking manufacturing providers, consolidating labs in 4 separate buildings into one facility. The transfer is predicted to extend collaboration between scientists and allow increased automation and digitalization.
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Biosafety testing and analytical growth are essential in drug growth and commercialization for conventional and novel modalities. World demand for these providers is rising at a double-digit fee, in accordance with MilliporeSigma, which represents the U.S. and Canada life science enterprise of Merck KGaA, based mostly in Darmstadt, Germany.
A significant biopharma hub
Rockville is in Montgomery County, Md., which anchors the third-largest biopharma hub within the U.S. Greater than 350 life science firms, together with Amgen, AstraZeneca and Novavax, specialise in gene and cell therapies, vaccines, prescribed drugs and manufacturing there.
Montgomery County was the primary within the nation to have an area biotechnology funding incentive program.
Alexandria Actual Property, which has the Alexandria Life Science and Translational Analysis Middle in Rockville, has lately been lively within the life science sector. In late June, it leased 127,300 sq. ft at 10075 Barnes Canyon Street (Constructing C), a 253,000-square-foot life science constructing at the moment underway in San Diego.
Upon completion in 2025, a prime 20 pharmaceutical firm will use the area as an R&D facility, upping its San Diego footprint by greater than 50 p.c. The undertaking is a part of SD Tech by Alexandria Mega Campus, located within the metropolis’s Sorrento Mesa submarket.
Lab area oversupply?
Demand for lab area has surged following the pandemic, pushed by breakthroughs in mRNA and CRISPR applied sciences. Builders have responded, bringing thousands and thousands of sq. ft of life science area to the market.
In line with the newest CommercialEdge report nonetheless, some areas are experiencing an oversupply of lab area. In 2022, life science properties traded for a mixed $6.2 billion. In 2023, gross sales dropped to $1.8 billion. Regardless of the slowdown in demand for such a property, the life science actual property market is predicted to stay sturdy, as most lab work requires bodily areas, unaffected by distant work developments.
