The new biotechnology center is opened as part of the company’s strategy to discover and develop more biotechnology medicines. John Lechleiter, Lilly chairman and chief executive officer said that the company is moving full speed ahead toward building a biotechnology powerhouse and the technology and talent at the new center are expected to bring novel biotech medicines to patients faster and more efficiently.
The Lilly Biotechnology Center is located within a 450,000 feet facility known as Campus Pointe, which was developed, and is owned and managed, by Veralliance Properties of San Diego. The location is within an extensive hub of life science activity near the University of California, San Diego and other prominent biomedical research institutes, which is consistent with Lilly’s fully integrated pharmaceutical network (FIPNet) strategy to leverage external resources and knowledge to advance its pipeline.
Campus Pointe is in the final stages of review to become California’s first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified core and shell facility at the Platinum level. Environmentally-responsible features of Campus Pointe include renewable energy production through use of solar array, optimal indoor air quality through enhanced HVAC commissioning and carbon dioxide monitoring.
The building is loaded with water-saving features, including low-flow fixtures, reclaimed water for both landscaping and the building’s cooling system, and drought-tolerant landscaping. The project included renovation of an existing building and use of recycled materials in the process. Many of the site’s existing trees were preserved in the re-development. Certified, renewable wood products are used throughout. In addition, Campus Pointe has parking for hybrid vehicles that is immediately accessible to public transportation.
Work at the new biotechnology center is mostly focused on discovering, engineering and conducting Phase I and II clinical trials on potential biologic medicines, with an emphasis on cancer, diabetes and autoimmune diseases, areas of medicine that hold potential promise for biologic drug development.
The Lilly Biotechnology Center, San Diego, is opening three months after Lilly announced it is moving its ImClone research headquarters (which specializes in developing cancer biologics) into a new biopharmaceutical research cluster in New York, and just one year after Lilly completed construction of its biotechnology research and development complex at company headquarters in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Lilly, a leading innovation-driven corporation is developing a growing portfolio of pharmaceutical products by applying the latest research from its own worldwide laboratories and from collaborations with eminent scientific organizations.
