Today, the Governor announced that New York will invest $50 million in state of the art biomedical research equipment and facilities, and has secured an agreement from a private company, Albany Molecular Research Inc. (AMRI), to locate in Western New York at Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus (BMNC) a new drug discovery research and development center. This investment, $35 million of which will go towards new equipment and $15 million of which will go towards improving existing lab space, will leverage $200 million in private investments and create 250 jobs. At least initially, the facility is expected to be located in the Innovation Center on Ellicott Street.
Albany Molecular Research, Inc. is a global contract research and manufacturing organization offering customers fully integrated drug discovery, development, and manufacturing services.
The advanced manufacturing and health sciences approaches to job growth, two key tenets of Governor Cuomo’s overall Buffalo Billion investment, will be based on recreating what nano-electronic research and development did for the Capital Region in Western New York, instead using nano-biomedical R&D. Rather than give money directly to private companies, the State, through SUNY, invested in core infrastructure and equipment and used that equipment as the incentive to attract companies to establish themselves in these new high-tech facilities located in the Capital Region. This provided a state owned foundation for private sector job growth. This approach made the Capital Region the international center for nanoscale research, and now commercial, development in the field of electronics.
The Governor, through his Buffalo Billion initiative and under the leadership of the Western New York Regional Economic Development Council, is making a down payment on replicating this approach in Western New York, however using a different field of research and development than what was used in the Capital Region. These strategic investments by the state, leveraged significantly with private investment, will build upon Western New York’s leadership in life science research and increase the commercialization of innovations developing from that research as well as more advanced manufacturing jobs in the pharmaceutical industry.
AMRI Chairman, CEO & President Thomas E. D’Ambra, Ph.D. said, “Albany Molecular Research, Inc. is pleased to be working with the State of New York to locate a new state-of-the-art pharmaceutical research, development and testing operation in Buffalo. We salute Governor Andrew Cuomo’s vision and leadership in building a new New York as a global hub for pioneering innovation and economic opportunity in the leading scientific fields of the 21st century. This new initiative with recognized institutions like the Jacobs Neurological Institute of the University at Buffalo and the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering is projected to generate over $250 million in investments and attract 250 high-paying positions to Buffalo.”
“Since our founding in the Capital District in 1991, AMRI continues to be a long-time corporate citizen in Upstate New York. AMRI currently has nearly 700 employees in New York, with just under 1,300 employees companywide and has invested almost $200 million in the Albany and Syracuse regions over the years,” said D’Ambra. “AMRI is excited to be working with the Governor and our other partners in making this vision a reality.”
“Our signature initiatives build upon our council’s 2011 five-year plan, ‘A Strategy for Prosperity in Western New York,’ by exploring the opportunity to leverage our region’s key assets,” said Howard A. Zemsky, Managing Partner at Larkin Development Group and Regional Council Co-chair. “I thank Governor Cuomo for giving our region this incredible opportunity to support the expansion of local companies, and to target and attract new businesses from across the country and around the globe.”
In other Medical Campus news, The Jacobs Institute was awarded $4 million for the construction of a medical device prototyping and research facility. The project will result in the creation of 20 new jobs, and will help leverage an estimated $12 million in private sector investment. The construction of the Jacobs Institute facility is on schedule as the non-profit continues to build partners with businesses like Toshiba.