A Los Angeles-area pharmaceutical company is planning to build a major pharmaceutical manufacturing and research facility outside of Madison where it will invest up to $250 million and create 250 jobs.
Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq: ARWR) of Pasadena, California, said recently it has completed the purchase of 13 acres in the Verona Technology Park in Verona. The site is planned for an approximately 140,000-square-foot drug manufacturing facility and an approximately 115,000-square-foot laboratory and office facility to support process development and analytical activities.
Arrowhead intends to invest between $200 million and $250 million into the buildout of the facilities. It expects that the new facilities will result in the creation of about 250 new jobs in the area. News of the facility first emerged in early fall when the company filed a proposal with the Plan Commission for the city of Verona, which is home to other high-tech companies like Epic Systems Corp. and MilliporeSigma.
Construction is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2022. Arrowhead will continue to operate additional research and development facilities in Madison and in San Diego, California.
“For more than a decade, Arrowhead has been a dedicated member of the biotech community in the greater Madison, Wisconsin, area. We have built strong local relationships and are pleased to continue our growth with the new Arrowhead campus that will include a new GMP manufacturing facility and associated lab and office facility,” said Christopher Anzalone, Arrowhead’s president and CEO. "This investment reaffirms our commitment to the Wisconsin biotech ecosystem, and we would like to thank the local agencies, who have been a pleasure to work with."
Arrowhead in 2011 acquired RNA therapeutics assets and a research facility in Madison from Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche.
The project team for the Verona facility includes Milwaukee-based Eppstein Uhen Architects (EUA), along with DPS Group, D’Onofrio Kottke & Associates, Smocke & Associates, Cresa Madison, and Vogel Brothers Building Co.
“We are privileged to be collaborating again with Arrowhead on an inventive building design which will enable their employees to treat some of the most challenging diseases,” EUA vice president and design principal John Chapman said in a press release.
Completion of the lab and office space is anticipated in the first quarter of 2023 and completion of the manufacturing facility is expected in the fourth quarter of 2023.
