A major biotech company is getting tax incentives from Hoover to expand its local research center.
The Hoover City Council approved a resolution Monday that provides the abatements to BioCryst Pharmaceuticals that will allow the company to expand its Hoover research and development facility by 42%.
The abatement, allowed for under the Tax Incentive Reform Act of 1992, contains non-educational portions of city, county and state sales use and property taxes. The total estimated benefit to Hoover City Schools through property tax is $971,616 over 10 years. The city’s estimated value of non-educational abated sales/use and property taxes is $753,146. The total estimated value of all abatements — non-educational city, county and state taxes — to BioCryst is $1,828,470.
BioCryst is a global biotechnology company focused on structure-guided drug design, which is used to develop oral small-molecule and protein therapeutics to target difficult-to-treat diseases. The company was founded in 1986 by researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The company’s Discovery Center of Excellence was established at Riverchase Corporate Park in the 1990s and has been the research and development hub of the company since. The now Durham, North Carolina-based pharmaceutical company was previously headquartered in Birmingham.
“The medicines we discover and develop at our Discovery Center of Excellence in Hoover can help people living with rare diseases who are in need of new treatment options. In Hoover, we can attract world-class talent at a lower cost of investment compared to other areas,” said Jon Stonehouse, president and CEO of BioCryst.
BioCryst’s labs and office support functions currently reside in 2100 Riverchase Center, Suite 200. BioCryst is leasing an adjacent suite and will then occupy the entire building at 2100 Riverchase. The expansion will bring an increase in all five of its main functional spaces within the research facility including biology, in‐life sciences and pre‐formulation spaces. Once completed, the expansion will increase the footprint of the lab space to 23,207 square feet. Upon project completion, the expanded Discovery Center of Excellence will occupy a total of 49,054 square feet.
“This development marks a milestone in our journey towards fostering an innovation and biotech ecosystem," said Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato. "The cutting-edge drug development happening at this facility holds the potential to transform the landscape of healthcare and improve countless lives across the globe. We are honored to support this company and their expansion.”
The firm also recently landed a licensing deal to pursue a treatment for vision loss related to diabetes.
BioCryst is working with Clearside Biomedical to develop the treatment and will pay the latter an upfront fee of $5 million and potential future milestone payments depending on the program's success.
The expansion and new deals follow news from spring when it was unveiled that BioCryst secured a $450 million financing agreement to pay down debt amid a challenging financial environment for life sciences companies.
The deal set up BioCryst with funding to refinance existing debt and additional capital to be drawn at the company's option. BioCryst's agreement with Pharmakon Advisors, a life sciences investor based in New York, provides the company with an initial $300 million.
