Life Sciences

Lifesaving Science
New Castle County’s bioscience industry continues to blossom

New Castle County’s commitment to innovation in the life-sciences industry figured in AstraZeneca’s decision to locate its U.S. headquarters just in Fairfax.

When you’re sick, there’s a reasonable possibility that the drugs and equipment to make you better have ties to New Castle County.

From companies that manufacture delicate instrumentation for sophisticated chemical laboratories to pharmaceutical giants poised for the next lifesaving discovery, bioscience enterprises thrive in northern Delaware, centrally located in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical corridor of the northeastern United States.

“Delaware’s strength is that it has a large number of researchers, engineers and scientists – a proportionately large number per capita,” says Bob Dayton, president of the Delaware BioScience Association. “We’re able to take that strength and look at commercializing new opportunities, spinning companies out of larger institutions and corporations, and creating new places for people to go to work.”

The Delaware BioScience Association, a not-for-profit organization founded in 2006, helps build bridges among the region’s many bioscience players and creates cost-saving programs such as discounted purchasing agreements. The association is housed in the Delaware Biotechnology Institute within the Delaware Technology Park in Newark.

One prominent member of the association is AstraZeneca PLC, with about 5,000 employees at its U.S. headquarters just north of Wilmington in Fairfax.

“AstraZeneca made the decision to move our corporate headquarters to New Castle County as a testament to this area’s strong commitment to innovation, particularly within the life-sciences industry,” says company spokeswoman Elizabeth Shaheen-Dumke.

The company made headlines in 2007 with its $15.6 billion acquisition of Maryland-based MedImmune, putting the big drug maker in the vaccine business. MedImmune is best known for its FluMist nasal spray, the only nasally inhaled influenza vaccine.

Also in 2007, AstraZeneca launched Symbicort, an asthma inhaler. “AstraZeneca is very excited about the launch of Symbicort, as we believe Symbicort provides an important new choice of therapy for asthma patients,” Shaheen-Dumke says.

Life Sciences Pioneer

AstraZeneca and other pharmaceutical researchers and manufacturers are clients of Agilent Technologies, a spinoff of Hewlett-Packard and a pioneer of life sciences in New Castle County since 1992.

With 800 employees in Delaware and 20,000 worldwide, Agilent provides instrumentation, supplies, software and services to the bioscience industry and other fields.

In 2007, it acquired Strategene, a developer, manufacturer and marketer of research and diagnostic products for life sciences. “I think what this acquisition will do for our customers is provide a more complete workflow solution in genomics, proteomics and metabolomics, which is the study of major metabolites in a given tissue at a given time,” explains Bob Lydum, Agilent’s East Coast public affairs manager.

Expansion Mode Continues

Another big name in New Castle County’s bioscience realm is Dade Behring, the world’s largest company dedicated solely to medical diagnostic equipment and supplies used by laboratories to test, for example, levels of blood sugar and cholesterol.

Already with about 1,250 employees in New Castle County, Dade Behring plans to add 90 jobs by March 2008 at its manufacturing and research-and-development facility in Glasgow.

Dayton sees Delaware’s bioscience future as broad and promising, with pharmaceuticals, medical devices, products for animal health and agriculture, and bio-based materials such as ethanol and fabrics made from corn all sharing the stage. “We’re putting emphasis on building this bioscience economy for today and also for the future.”

Story by Sharon H. Fitzgerald

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