Shire (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SHPGY]]), the Irish drug giant that acquired San Diego’s Advanced BioHealing a year ago, says today it has been working with San Diego-based BioMed Realty Trust to develop a corporate campus in San Diego as part of a substantial expansion of its regenerative medicine business. The move is expected to generate “several hundred new jobs.”
In a separate statement, BioMed Realty says it has acquired two adjacent land parcels totaling 28 acres to develop a new campus for Advanced BioHealing that will include office, laboratory, warehouse, and manufacturing facilities. The Sorrento Mesa property, which BioMed Realty acquired for $47 million, lies between Alere, Inc. and the Scripps Proton Therapy Center and can accommodate facilities totaling 800,000 square feet.
Construction of the first phase, a 150,000-square-foot facility to house manufacturing and associated operations, is slated to begin next year. In its statement, Shire says, “the expansion “could create several hundred local jobs once the regenerative medicine campus is operational.” Shire, based in Dublin, Ireland, also has major offices in Cambridge, MA, and Wayne, PA, and operates manufacturing facilities in Lexington, MA, and Owings Mills, MD.
Advanced BioHealing also plans to maintain its existing manufacturing facility on North Torrey Pines Road where the development of Dermagraft, a bio-engineered human skin substitute, was pioneered.
“This new campus will give us the flexibility and increased capacity we need to develop and manufacture new regenerative medicine therapies and build our foundation for continued growth in this exciting field,” says Kevin Rakin, Shire’s Regenerative Medicine President, in a statement today.
Shire says it plans to add manufacturing capacity for Dermagraft, which is used to treat diabetic ulcers. The company says it also plans to manufacture new regenerative medicine products.