German-owned drug lab to build Washington state’s first biotech drug factory
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The state’s first major factory to make biotech drugs is coming to south Snohomish County, where Berlex Laboratories will build a $60 million plant with 70 new, highly skilled jobs. The factory is considered a competitive coup for the state, whose officials would like to see biotech become a catalyst for economic growth. The region already is ranked among the nation’s top biotech centers based on research and development, but it lags in manufacturing. Some officials worry the region’s edge could be lost if the products coming from local research are manufactured elsewhere. Now officials can hope other companies will follow the lead of Berlex, the American part of a $5.8 billion-a-year German company — Schering AG — that arrived in the Northwest two years ago by buying a piece of Immunex. For Berlex, the factory represents a high-stakes bet that it can pry open a bountiful new market for its drug Leukine. The expanded production is a gamble that the company can get the drug approved for treating Crohn’s disease, a painful Source : accessmylibrary.com |