Signs of Life Sciences

That formula worked for pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co., which announced May 2 that it would locate a $425-million insulin manufacturing facility in Prince William County in Northern Virginia. The company is building a 600,000-sq.-ft. (55,740-sq.-m.) plant on 120 acres (48.6 hectares) and will hire more than 700 workers at an average annual salary of $44,400. The Virginia plant will be the company's first outside of Indiana. (For more on Eli Lilly's growth, see "Ports to Prosperity" on p. 672 of the September 2002 issue of Site Selection, and "Making the Lists," on p. 776 of this issue.)
        Virginia Gov. Mark Warner approved a $2.25-million grant from the Governor's Opportunity Fund to assist Eli Lilly with land acquisition, infrastructure development, site preparation and work-force services and/or capital equipment purchases. Eli Lilly, a Fortune 500 company with more than $11 billion in sales each year, chose Virginia for the same reasons as the much smaller Novozymes, and there is growing evidence that Virginia is primed to reap more such expansions in the future.
        In June, Warner signed an executive order creating an advisory board to make recommendations on how to attract biotechnology investment to Virginia. The Governor's Advisory Board for the Virginia Biotechnology Initiative will be asked to determine how the state's research centers, labs and universities can cooperate to boost investment; determine which new industries the state should target; and determine what kinds of training and education programs are needed to produce a more technologically competent work force. The panel will comprise state lawmakers, economic developers and private-sector experts, led by the Virginia Secretary of Commerce and Trade and the chairman of the Virginia Biotechnology Association.
        The governor points to Virginia's track record in the past decade –attracting $1.6 billion in capital investment and more than 4,700 jobs in bioscience research and manufacturing –as evidence that the state can compete.
        The total pharmaceutical market in the U.S. is $390 billion, of which biopharmaceutical manufacturing accounts for 7 percent. By 2006, the total pharma market will have increased to $550 billion, with biologics manufacturing growing to $70 billion, or 12.7 percent of the total.
        At the recent Third Annual Biologic Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, scientists gathered from around the world to consider the growth possibilities in biopharma manufacturing. Gerben Algra, Ph.D., president and CEO of DSM Biologics of Groningen, The Netherlands, said, "We believe that biopharmaceuticals is the most exciting market to be in. It is in its infancy and there are so many players –-from virtual companies to large pharma and contracting manufacturing organizations."
        The governor of Virginia agrees. In an interview with Site Selection, Warner says that "the growth of the biotech-life sciences sector has as much growth potential for Virginia in the next decade as telecommunications and information technology had in the 1990s."
        Unlike other states, however, which target primarily research and development facilities, Virginia will make a strong play for biotech manufacturing centers.
        "Virginia can be a location for these companies' manufacturing facilities," Warner says. "Wyeth has a major manufacturing facility in Virginia. We have a whole series of the big pharma companies in Virginia. There's a different decision-making process for locating a biomanufacturing plant, and we have done well in that area."