Pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly recently announced it would rent and retrofit an existing building in Prince William County to create a temporary wet lab before its permanent labs are built.
Eli Lilly’s 300,000-square-foot building within Innovation@Prince William Technology Park is expected to be finished in 2009. In preparation for the move, the company is building a 10,000-square-foot lab with special plumbing facilities needed for biotech research, said Patty Tracy, an Eli Lilly spokeswoman.
The company plans to manufacture insulin pens with pre-filled cartridges in its new facility.
“There is a need for wet lab space and there will continue to be a need as George Mason University continues to do research, and technology is transferred and people want to commercialize that product,” said Jason Grant, a spokesman for Prince William County’s Department of Economic Development.
Once Lilly’s lease is up, that lab will be vacated, allowing space for small biotech companies to test their ideas, said Grant, who added he hopes this becomes a trend.
“More often than once a month we get calls from companies that need lab space and they are hoping to rent some on campus. We don’t have it,” said Jerry Coughter, George Mason University’s assistant vice president for regional economic development at the Prince William campus.
Maryland built up the Interstate 270 bio-tech corridor using developer incentives, Coughter said. In Virginia, the development is based on market trends, he said.
“I certainly believe in letting the marketplace work and there does seem to be — here at Innovation — people looking to build spec lab buildings,” said Coughter, adding both incubator and commercial labs are needed.
Lilly’s actions could serve as a model for future lab growth in the region, said Martin Apple, president of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents.
cgoodman@dcexaminer.com
