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s last year's vaccine production problems in Europe pointed out, there is no substitute for high-quality facilities to produce high-dollar and high-demand pharmaceuticals. But pharmaceutical multinationals at the same time are involved in cost-savings strategies that are seeing divestment of assets and offshoring of some work.

by ADAM BRUNS adam.bruns bounce@conway.com

As such diverse factors as mergers, regulatory approval, litigation and bird flu put the pressure on to produce quickly, cleanly and profitably, how are multinationals evaluating their portfolios to make these important facility decisions?
   Asked about the importance of a possible FedEx air cargo hub expansion in Indianapolis to an industry like pharmaceuticals, Peter Brooks, principal with Ernst & Young's Real Estate Advisory Services Group, says, "There are two things that pharma has that not everybody has – one, it needs to be close to distribution, and two, it needs a lot of water. On the short list of things pharmaceutical manufacturing is concerned about is easy, cheap access to a lot of water."
   Air is good too – as in air transport. While the FedEx project hangs in the balance, a new weekly international air cargo operation just got started in March 2006 between Indianapolis and Luxembourg. Once on the ground, cargo aboard the Cargolux Boeing 747-400F is unloaded and temporarily stored before distribution in specially designed warehouse space at the Indianapolis Maintenance Center (IMC).
   Roche Diagnostics, a partner in making the regular flight happen, has its North American headquarters in Indianapolis. "A cornerstone for Roche Diagnostics is innovation," said Kent Kost, president, Roche Diagnostics Operations, Inc. "This new transportation process is a great example of innovation, as it will significantly reduce the time that our products spend in transit thereby allowing us to better serve our customers. We are proud of the work done with the City of Indianapolis, the Indianapolis Airport Authority, Cargolux and Schenker Logistics to further simplify our business processes."