NDSU biotech center secures funding

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The fledgling Center for Biopharmaceutical Research and Production at North Dakota State University got a boost with a new infusion of more than $3 million from the state.

The new state funding coincides with cash contributions from the private sector of $3.6 million and in-kind contributions valued at $3 million for the center of excellence, approved in 2008.

Final approval for the state funds came Wednesday from a budget panel of the North Dakota Legislature. The money is to help the center develop vaccines and other medicines that will create jobs and businesses.

“I’m very excited,” Sathish Chandran, the center’s director, said Thursday. “It’s an endorsement of the strategy, the vision, which has the support of the state and community.”

Chandran, a former scientist with Pfizer, was recruited to head the new center and has been onboard for seven months.

Including the state’s initial $2 million grant, the center now has funding commitments totaling at least $11.6 million – almost a sum he initially had hoped to raise in three to five years.

“In this early stage, what he’s achieved has exceeded our expectations greatly,” said Charles Peterson, dean of the college of pharmacy at NDSU.

As he gets the center up and running, Chandran is hiring key staff. He’s recruited a research scientist and hired a laboratory manager, a start toward the seven senior staff and 10 junior staff positions he plans to fill over time.

The center, temporarily housed in Sudro Hall, is hoping to secure space in the former Alien Technology building on the NDSU campus, which Sanford Health plans to lease.

If plans materialize, the biopharmaceutical center will lease 10,000 square feet for lab and office space, with occupancy starting as early as late summer, Peterson said.

The vaccine industry is estimated at $22.5 billion, and is projected to exceed $36 billion in four or five years.

There’s no reason, Peterson said, that North Dakota couldn’t capture a slice of that market worth tens – and perhaps hundreds – of millions of dollars, Peterson said.

“It could be very, very huge,” he added, referring to a research corridor that could extend from Winnipeg to Sioux Falls, S.D., with Fargo-Moorhead at its center.

Readers can reach Forum reporter Patrick Springer at (701) 241-5522

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