Sanofi-Aventis unveils state-of-art research facility

By Joe Pangbum, Inside Tucson Business
January 15, 2010

Sanofi-Aventis, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, has a cure for needed research space: Last week, it showed off its expanded Tucson Research Center, a 110,350 square-foot, state-of-the-art facility in Oro Valley’s Innovation Park.

Side effects are positive and will include increased productivity, increased lab space for scientists, consolidation of equipment and staff into one building, increased space to add additional scientists, increase in collaboration between universities, increased boost of economic impact on the region, increased stature on the national biotech stage and better views.

"We’ve kind of been like a secret in Southern Arizona until now," said Beth Koch, site director. "We’ve built this gorgeous building on Innovation Drive, but we’ve been around for 20 years."The Tucson Research Center was originally a start-up company by four University of Arizona professors in 1990 to explore the emerging field of combinatorial chemistry – a method envisioned for accelerating the discovery of new classes of therapeutics.

At the Jan. 13 grand opening for the site, at 2090 E. Innovation Blvd., Ken Wertman, site research director, likened combinatorial chemistry to space exploration.

"There so far are around 25 million drug compounds made by man and what many people do is base research off of what is known because they know it works," Wertman said. "We are looking into the unknowns of chemical space."

While 25 million sounds like a lot of known compounds, Wertman said if what is known fit on the surface of a dime, the unknown possibilities would cover 100 times the earth’s surface.

"It is the challenge of our people here in this site to search this unexplored area," Wertman said. "Our most important asset is not our technology, but it is the biotech spirit in our people that have a responsibility to each other and the mission. It’s important because 95 percent of the work they do here will not have any impact on a patient. It’s that difficult."

The Tucson Research Center, and other centers like it within the company, are the first steps in the process to developing new pharmaceuticals. Sanofi-Aventis is the company behind drugs including Plavix, a heart medication used to prevent blood clots after a heart attack; Taxotere, a cancer treating drug; Lovenox, an anticoagulant therapy used to prevent deep vein thrombis which can cause blood clots; and Eloxatin, a treatment drug for stage three colon cancer.

The way the research facility functions, chemists work in labs to create new compounds. There are three chemistry labs in place currently with extra shell space to be converted when the time comes.

The viable new compounds are sent to production where each is bound to a small bead and given an individual bar code. The compounds are stored in a cooler that extends from the first floor to the roof. There are more than 1.3 million samples in this "library" kept on site.

"That was what caused the most concern with the move," said Ryan Hartung, senior research investigator in chemistry and a tour guide for the building. "The samples had to stay refrigerated and they had to insure each load it took to bring them here."

It took around 20 trips to transport the whole library to the new site and trip had to be insured to the tune of several million dollars. It is also one area of the building where only five or so people have access.

"It is the combined value of all the work this company has done for the past 20 years," Hartung said.

On the second level, samples can go to analytics and/or purification before reaching biology where they are tested with other compounds to see if they have the potential reactions.

"You will test 80,000 to 90,000 compounds, and get about 1,000 to 2,000 you need to follow up on," said Teri Suzuki a biologist at Sanofi-Aventis. "From that, if you’re lucky, you get two to three that are interesting and could be promising."

The site was built to house 108 people, which leaves room to grow from the current 85 employees.

Contact reporter Joe Pangburn at jpangburn@azbiz.com or (520) 295-4259.