Business & Government

UVA poised to benefit from AstraZeneca’s new Albemarle manufacturing site

AstraZeneca’s decision to build a manufacturing plant in Albemarle County will accelerate research collaborations, bolster the area’s biotech industry and increase employment opportunities for University of Virginia graduates while enhancing the region’s growing reputation as a life science hub, University officials said.

The international pharmaceutical company announced Thursday it will build a factory in Albemarle County. The site is located near UVA’s North Fork, a research park that includes the nonprofit Cville Bio Hub’s Commonwealth BioAccelerator, which supports emerging biotechnology startups.

The plant will also be within a half-hour’s drive of UVA’s Paul and Diane Manning Institute of Biotechnology.

“The University of Virginia is honored to welcome AstraZeneca to Charlottesville and Albemarle County, where innovation drives impact,” interim UVA President Paul Mahoney said. “Through collaborations with the Paul and Diane Manning Institute of Biotechnology and UVA’s nationally recognized research enterprise, AstraZeneca’s presence will accelerate medical breakthroughs while reinforcing Central Virginia’s role as a national leader in biotechnology innovation.”

Pace Lochte, UVA’s assistant vice president for economic development, says that cooperation between local and state governments, private enterprise, nonprofits and educational institutions is creating a welcoming environment for the biotechnology and medical technology industries. (University Communications photo)

AstraZeneca is the second pharmaceutical company to unveil plans to build manufacturing plants in Central Virginia. Eli Lilly announced on Sept. 16 that it would build a $5 billion manufacturing facility in Goochland County, approximately 50 miles from Grounds.

Both companies have worked with UVA Health physicians and researchers to develop medicines and medical equipment and investigate medical procedures. In 2009, UVA had an alliance with AstraZeneca around cardiovascular research with jointly funded research and shared patents. Over the past two decades, new investments in the region's biotechnology and medicine sectors have spurred significant growth and innovation.

“The region is building a life sciences continuum where research, innovation, development and production are interconnected points that bolster the industry cluster and create a virtuous cycle,” Pace Lochte, UVA’s assistant vice president for economic development, said.

Lochte said the entire Central Virginia region plays a role in creating an ecosystem that is attracting corporations. Government, economic developers, businesses, nonprofits and academia have teamed to strengthen industry clusters and attract new opportunities, she said.

“In the past, corporate recruitment operated in an economic development silo. The thought was, ‘We need to have sites or industrial parks to attract companies.’ And now it’s very different,” Lochte said. “Companies like AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly want to see that a region is able to deliver not only on sites, but also on workforce, housing, infrastructure, innovation and entrepreneurship. They want to see interconnectivity among initiatives and that partners are using a systems approach rather than pursuing isolated efforts. It requires a different mindset, and the ability for many partners to work together toward a common vision.”

UVA leaders say they believe the companies’ locations will make it easier to collaborate with University researchers and to focus on the development, commercialization and manufacturing of new cellular, gene and immunotherapies.

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The companies are also likely to support the creation of new ventures and encourage entrepreneurs to bring their research out of the lab and onto the market.

“We hope that there’ll be more collaboration with AstraZeneca and with Eli Lilly and others, not only on clinical trials in biomanufacturing, but on early research,” said Mark Esser, the chief scientific officer and head of the Manning Institute. A UVA alumnus, Esser served as AstraZeneca’s vice president of vaccines and immune therapies before taking his position at the Manning Institute.

“We hope some of the research going on here at UVA, and specifically in the Manning Institute, will mature to a point where people can start their own companies,” he said.

That’s an area where the University can help, said Mike Lenox, University Professor and Tayloe Murphy Professor of Business Administration at UVA’s Darden School of Business. Lenox leads UVA Innovates, a University initiative supporting entrepreneurship on and off Grounds.

Left, portrait of Mark Esser, and right, portrait of Michael Lenox

Left, Mark Esser, a UVA alumnus, is the chief scientific officer and head of the Manning Institute. A UVA alumnus. Right, Michael Lenox is a University Professor and Tayloe Murphy Professor of Business Administration for the UVA Darden School of Business and leads UVA Innovates. (Contributed photo and photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)

“There’s a tendency sometimes to think of economic development and job growth as linear: a faculty member creates a technology or comes up with a discovery and starts a business, and then it grows and moves out into the world,” Lenox said. “But with entrepreneurial ecosystems, you want to create self-reinforcing cycles. As technologies spin out businesses, additional talent is attracted. Additional ventures want to locate near similar ventures, and then new ventures can form.”

That’s already happening. Thomas Thorpe, a Darden School graduate, founded Afton Scientific in 1991. The biopharmaceutical company is expanding its Albemarle County manufacturing plant and plans to add 200 new jobs.

Will Mauldin and Adam Dixon, both of whom have doctorates in biomedical engineering from UVA, founded the imaging-based medical technology company Rivanna in 2010. The company has thrived in its Charlottesville location.

“We stayed in the area for a few different reasons. The primary reason is that the community has been incredibly supportive,” Mauldin said, noting that UVA provided the company’s initial funding through the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation translational research fund. “It allowed me to work on my company while remaining a UVA employee in a postdoctoral research role.”

Rivanna has hired many of its employees from the ranks of University graduates, demonstrating again that the virtuous cycle continues, with companies forming, growing, and investing in Central Virginia and improving health care for all.

“There is a high talent density here,” he said. “Lastly, but importantly, this is an area that has a high quality of living. I met my wife here, and it is where we wanted to start our family. The same goes for some of our other staff.”