A new $150 million facility at the University of Delaware will provide a space for testing new biopharmaceutical manufacturing practices as well as train workers in the highly technical skills needed to produce advanced medications.
UD, state and federal officials broke ground Monday on the SABRE Center, which stands for Securing American Biomanufacturing Research and Education.
The 70,000-square-foot SABRE Center will be located on the STAR Campus next to the Ammon Pinizzotto Biopharmaceutical Innovation Center.
It’s meant to be an extension of the National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals (NIIMBL), which is already located on the STAR Campus.
NIIMBL is a UD-led coalition of nearly 200 companies, educational institutions, nonprofits and state governments. The public-private partnership is designed to accelerate innovation in the U.S. biopharmaceutical industry, which produces vaccines, monoclonal antibodies, gene therapies and other medical products derived from biological sources.
NIIMBL Director Kelvin Lee said the SABRE Center will allow researchers to further test and refine innovations developed at NIIMBL.
“This facility would provide a place where we can actually test how those technologies work in a manufacturing environment,” Lee said. “And then if we need to modify or make adjustments to make it more suitable, we then have those lessons learned.”
Sen. Chris Coons said the COVID-19 pandemic, and the speed at which a vaccine was developed, demonstrated the power of biopharmaceuticals.
“What is going to be possible with this institute, with its next phase, is to speed up the cycle of innovation,” Coons said.
That innovation, he said, will give birth to new companies.
“Spinning out from that will be a remarkable next generation of opportunities for Delawareans to work in biotech and in manufacturing, for companies to be launched here and regionally,” Coons said.
SABRE will also be a training ground for people looking to develop the skills needed to work in high-tech biopharmaceutical manufacturing.
“This facility provides an opportunity for people to get trained in how you gown up properly, how you move through a facility properly, how you actually operate pieces of equipment,” Lee said.
Having a skilled workforce here will help attract new pharmaceutical companies to Delaware. UD officials have previously said that the SABRE Center will bring 3,500 jobs to Delaware over the next decade.
“Places that have very effective training programs typically find a significant amount of capital investment coming down the road, where companies want to build their factories there because they know they can access a talent pool to staff their factories,” Lee said.
Sen. Tom Carper said the SABRE Center is an important addition to the STAR Campus, which already boasts 1 million square feet of new development on what used to be the Chrysler assembly plant.
“While we’re not going to build tanks here anymore, we’re not going to build Chrysler products here anymore, we are going to be building facilities that help provide medicines that will make us a healthier country and a healthier world,” Carper said.
So far, the SABRE Center has secured $45 million in investment from the federal government and $30 million from the state.
Lee declined to say when the new facility will open.
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