Life Sciences Real Estate #12

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BELGIUM – LIMBURG

Health Campus Limburg officially opened the new BioVille wing at the BioVille Health & Care Incubator on campus. This is a significant expansion covering 2,000 sq m (21,500 sq ft) and it is dedicated to scale-up companies, complementing the existing start-up facilities and shared labs. The first two residents will be invoX Pharma Respiratory Innovation Centre (who develop drug-device combination products to tackle respiratory diseases) and Rejuvenate Biomed (a clinical-stage company focused on developing combination drugs for healthy ageing). The investment of €4.3 million (£3.7 million) was made possible with support from Provincie Limburg (België) and the European Union.

DENMARK – COPENHAGEN

Symbion, Denmark's largest coworking provider and a partner to Copenhagen Science City, opened CPHLabs Food in collaboration with University of Copenhagen and REBBLS (Rising Entrepreneurs in BioBusiness and Life Science). The new facility, described as low cost and easy access, is for early-stage startups that need lab space to develop their next food product, ingredient, or process. The lab is open 24/7. Power, water, air, basic equipment and storage are included in the rent, and apart from lab space, the start-ups get access to shared office space. No start-up can rent more than two of the six lab benches to ensure that start-ups also meet like-minded founders in the lab.

GERMANY – BERLIN

Bayer has added a new manufacturing facility to its global supply chain network as part of Bayer's global manufacturing strategy for pharmaceutical liquid dosage forms, such as injection and infusion solutions. The highly automated robot-based filling machine combines efficient and reliable production of medications, aiming to bring them from concept to market and ultimately to the patients even faster. The facility serves critical manufacturing areas with high medical demand, such as products in the field of ophthalmology. The facility is located in Germany at Bayer's global pharmaceutical headquarters in north Berlin.

IRELAND – GALWAY

Dexcom has officially broken ground on its new €300 million (£258 million) manufacturing facility in Athenry, Co. Galway. The company, a global leader in real-time continuous glucose monitoring (rtCGM) for people with diabetes, expects to create more than 1,000 jobs to the area. This is Dexcom’s first manufacturing facility in Europe and its will ensure the flow of products throughout EMEA. The new facility extends to 40,227 sq m (433,000 sq ft) and is located on the southwest outskirts of Athenry on a 32.5 ha (80 acres ) site owned by the IDA. The company will pay the local authority a contribution of c. €1.1m (£0.9 million) towards the provision of public infrastructure, services, and facilities benefitting the development. A 2.1 km (1.3 mile) walking trail will also be created around the boundary of the site, passing through the various landscaped areas.

NETHERLANDS – LEIDEN

Dura Vermeer seeks a main contractor for its planned Nexus lab building in the Leiden Bio Science Park. The planned five-storey building extends to 9,000 sq m (97,000 sq ft) and the office-to-lab ratio is 40 per cent to 60 per cent. Nexus is located on New Rhijngeest South, the newest part of the park. Dura Vermeer had previously developed another building there for DuPont Industrial Biosciences (now part of IFF).

PORTUGAL - PAREDES DE COURA

In October 2023, Zendal the Spanish biotech and pharma company launched its vaccine manufacturing plant in the town of Paredes de Coura in northern Portugal. Located on a site of more than 50,000 sq m (538,000 sq ft) and costing €25 million (£21.5 million), the facility will have a production capacity of up to 84 million vaccines per year. It is the first manufacturing plant for human health vaccines in Portugal. Find more detail in our article on Portugal in our previous issue.

UK – BRISTOL

Science Creates, backed by Research England, part of UKRI, and the University of Bristol has secured £8.5m (€9.85m) to open its third state-of-the-art deep tech incubator. From this year, the new 30,000 sq ft (2,787 sq m) building will provide the capacity to incubate approximately 275 new companies from West of England universities and beyond. Specifically, it will accommodate spinouts which are making the next groundbreaking discoveries in quantum and engineering biology. Find more detail in our article on Bristol in this issue.

UK – MANCHESTER

Manchester City Council has given the go-ahead for the development of a mixed-use, purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) and life sciences scheme at Upper Brook Street in Ardwick by a property consortium comprising Property Alliance Group (Alliance), Moda Living, Williams Motor Holdings Co, McLaren property and Kadans Science Partner. The four developers behind proposals for almost 2,000 student beds and more than 500,000 sq ft (46,500 sq m) of life sciences workspace in Manchester secured planning approval for the £450 million (€523 million) campus but not before the meeting was moved to a different room as a result of unrest in the public gallery.