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Greater
Richmond
Advantages
for Life Sciences
Virginia
BioTechnology Research Park
The
Virginia
BioTechnology
Research
Park is a dynamic
biosciences community strategically headquartered in downtown Richmond,
VA, in the heart of the nation’s East Coast pharmaceutical and biotechnology
corridor. The park was originally
created as a joint initiative of Virginia
Commonwealth University, the Commonwealth
of
Virginia and the city of Richmond. The park is situated on 34-acres
adjacent to the Medical College of Virginia campus of VCU and will accommodate
3,000 researchers, scientists and engineers in 1.9 million square feet of space
when completed. The
Virginia
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organizations
involved with forensics, testing of biotoxins, and management of the nation’s
organ transplantation process.
The
Park has currently developed over 575,000 square feet of research, laboratory,
office and support space in eight buildings employing over 1,300. Two new facilities were recently completed: the new $17.5 million
headquarters of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), an 80,000 square
foot facility employing over 250 individuals, and the
Commonwealth
of
Virginia’s Division of Consolidated Laboratories, a $63 million state laboratory with
over 190,000 square feet of space. The
new facility will be one of 5 laboratories in the
United States
equipped with Biosafety Level 4 (BSL4) lab space specifically designed to meet
worldwide standards for safely handling the most dangerous pathogens.
The
Bioscience Incubator is Virginia’s first technology incubator and is housed in the Virginia
Biotechnology Center, the Virginia BioTechnology Research Park’s first
building. Since its founding in
1996, more than 50 companies have started in the incubator, including 18 from
VCU. Sixteen have successfully
graduated, with four having relocated to larger space in the Park. Three
companies - Insmed Inc., Allos Therapeutics Inc., and Commonwealth
Biotechnologies, Inc. - are now publicly traded firms
Satellite
sites in the surrounding counties are available for projects that are too large
to be accommodated at the downtown site. Parts
of Chesterfield
County’s Meadowville
Technology
Park
and Henrico
County’s WhiteOak TechnologyPark
have recently been designated for biotechnology and other life sciences
projects.
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