The first of IBO’s biannual new laboratory roundup focuses on new pharmaceutical and consumer product labs, along with labs in Brazil. The table on page 6 showcases plans for new academic, chemical and nonprofit labs.

New pharmaceutical labs have been announced in the US and Asia. Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a current hot spot for new labs; likely linked with the state’s Life Sciences Initiative, a strategy enacted in 2008 to publicly fund the state’s life sciences sector at $1 billion over 10 years. Pfizer has announced it will consolidate its cardiovascular medicine and neuroscience research units, currently housed in Groton, Connecticut, into a 180,000-sq.-ft. Cambridge site leased from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The facility will open in the fourth quarter of 2013. Also in Cambridge, Novartis broke ground this month on a $600 million, 550,000-sq.-ft. center, which is also on a site leased from MIT. The site, across the street from the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research headquarters, will encompass lab, office and retail space, including two new buildings for pharmaceutical research and an overhaul of an aging building. The facility will open in 2015.

Boehringer Ingelheim is enhancing its US headquarters in Ridgefield, Connecticut, with the addition of a $65 million, 72,000-sq.-ft. R&D center, which is scheduled for completion in 2014. The center will manufacture active pharmaceutical ingredients used in early stages of development. The announcement of the center comes on the heels of Boehringer Ingelheim’s November groundbreaking of a $42.5 million, 63,000-sq.-ft. Safety Assessment Building for nonclinical safety studies and research studies, which is slated to open in 2013.

Merck is also focusing on early-stage development with a new Asia R&D headquarters in Beijing, China. The 47,000-sq.-ft. facility is part of the $1.5 billion in R&D investments the company announced in December 2011 it will make in China over the next five years. The first phase of construction is set to be completed in 2014. The facility will house 600 staff, who will work in drug discovery and development with an emphasis on cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

Elsewhere in Asia, Biocon opened an R&D center in Bengaluru, India, earlier this month. More than 300 researchers occupy the 200,000 sq. ft. of space, which includes molecular biology and characterization, formulations development and functional bioassay labs. According to local newspapers, the INR 100 crore ($19.9 million = INR 50.28 = $1) investment could double over the next few years as the facility is expanded.

Brazil is another region where new labs are cropping up. In November 2011, Novozymes opened an R&D center in Araucária for developing enzyme products for bioenergy. In the region, Novozymes is working with Latin American firms Dedini, Cetrel, Centro de Tecnologia Canavieira and Petrobras for biofuels research.

Industrial biotechnology in Brazil is also on Boeing’s radar, as the firm plans to open an aerospace technology center, its sixth research facility outside the US, in São Paulo later this year. The center will develop aerospace technologies in collaboration with Brazilian researchers. Air traffic management, advanced metals and biomaterials will also be areas of focus.

Beauty product company L’Oreal has plans for labs in Brazil and elsewhere. In December 2011, L’Oréal announced it will construct a €30 million ($39.5 million = EUR 0.76 = $1), 28,000-sq.-m. (301,389-sq.-ft.) research and innovation center on Bom Jesus Island in Rio de Janeiro. The center will focus on manufacturing products specifically designed for Brazil and Latin America. And in March, the company opened a €100 million ($131.6 million) hair care research center in Paris Saint-Ouen, France. Five hundred staff, including chemists, materials scientists, rheologists and opticians, occupy the 25,000-sq.-m. (269,097-sq.-ft.) facility, which focuses on the efficiency and safety of hair color, care and styling. L’Oréal also plans to expand in India this year, having committed INR 500 crore ($99.4 million) to the construction of a Mumbai R&D center and a Bangalore advanced research facility, according to the Hindu Business Line. The Mumbai center will develop products specifically for the Indian market and complement the company’s Mumbai consumer evaluation center.

Also expanding in India is Nestlé. The company will build an INR 230 crore ($45.7 million) R&D center in Manesar. The center, which will open in the fourth quarter of 2012, will develop products for the Indian market, particularly lower-priced products.

Selected New Laboratories

Academic

Organization: Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute University of California San Diego

Location:San Diego, CA

Details: Lab and clinical researchers, including experts in biomedical engineering and informatics, imaging, and telemedicine, will occupy the $269 million, 300,000-sq.-ft. Institute.

Timeline: Construction will begin in 2013 and is expected to be completed in 2015.

Organization: Life Sciences Building University of Bristol

Location:Bristol, UK

Details: The £54 million ($87.5 million), 13,500-sq.-m. (145,313-sq.-ft.) building will house a five-story lab that will include spectrometers and microscopes, clean rooms and acoustic chambers.

Timeline: Construction began this month. The building is expected to open in early 2014.

Chemical

Organization: Clariant Innovation Center Clariant

Location:Frankfurt, Germany

Details: The €100 million ($132.4 million), 36,000-sq.-m. (387,000-sq.-ft.) Center will merge Clarient’s Analytics, New Business Development and Intellectual Property Management units and its patent department in an effort to improve R&D and innovation.

Timeline: Construction began in February, and the Center will open in 2013.

Organization: Technology Center SABIC

Location:Kangqiao, China

Details: The $100 million, 60,000-sq.-ft. Center will house 400 employees, including 200 R&D personnel who will concentrate on plastics manufacturing.

Timeline: Operations will begin in 2013.

Nonprofit

Organization: Cancer Research Laboratory Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Location:Cambridge, MA

Details: The 154,000-sq.-ft., five-floor facility will perform basic research for cancer and other diseases. The lab will be built at Longwood Medical Area.

Timeline: Construction will begin later this year and conclude in late 2014.

Organization: The Jackson Laboratory The Jackson Laboratory

Location:Farmington, CT

Details: The 173,000-sq.-ft. facility at the University of Connecticut will focus on personalized medicine and house 300 scientists. The facility will eventually encompass 250,000 sq. ft.

Timeline: Construction will begin later this year and finish by early 2014.