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Week of May 29, 2008 |
| Biotech company to set up shop here, create 75 jobs By Risa PolanskyNew Jersey-based global medical technology company Becton, Dickinson and Co. is to start manufacturing in North Miami, making a more than $20 million capital investment and creating dozens of high-paying jobs. The company is to renovate 90,000 square feet of the former IVAX Pharmaceuticals building. "Miami-Dade County, with its spirit of public-private partnership, skilled workforce and infrastructure, is an ideal location for BD to grow this important part of our business," said Tom Isett, vice president of advanced bioprocessing for BD Biosciences, in a statement. The cell culture media supplements to be made here are used to produce vaccines and biopharmaceuticals. Demand is increasing worldwide for the product, Mr. Isett said. Company documents say the supplements are "increasingly being adopted as critical components in the production of many lifesaving biological medicines on the global market." The new facility is expected to create 75 high-paying jobs during the next eight years. It could generate more than $3.3 million in tax revenue for Miami-Dade through that period, $1.3 million of that toward the public schools. BD has offices in about 50 countries. Its biosciences arm saw revenues of $1.034 billion last year, according to company financials. Landing the company is another feather in Greater Miami's bioscience cap. The area is rapidly growing as a life-science hub, now home to about 1,500 life-science companies, according to The Beacon Council, Miami-Dade's economic development arm. The industry employs more than 17,000 workers here and generates more than $2.3 billion annually, the council says. It helped recruit BD, assembling in part a package of more than $1.4 million state and local incentives based on performance.
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