MD Logistics plans Indy facility to tap local pharma boom
The $1m refrigerated warehouse, to be constructed in Plainfield near Indianapolis, will cover 15,000 sq. ft. and add to an existing 22,000 sq. ft. facility sited in the same town.
The unit will employ around 75 staff and be operational by 2009, reaching full capacity by 2012, said MD Logistics.
The facility will be built to U. Food and Drug Administration and current Good Manufacturing Processes (cGMP) standards, and will serve the company's growing pharmaceutical distribution business, said Mark Sell, principal and owner of MD Logistics.
"There is a strong and growing demand from the pharmaceutical industry for additional climate-controlled facilities because new biologic medicines,” Sell said. Indiana is a hub for the biopharmaceutical industry, not least because the state capital, Indianapolis, is the home of drug major Eli Lilly.
Nearly 50 contract service providers operate in Indiana and the pharmaceutical industry in the state employs nearly 8,500 staff, according to BioCrossroads, Indiana's public-private initiative to grow the life sciences. Heading the list of outsourcing specialists in the area is now Covance, which earlier this month announced a $50m deal to buy Lilly's Greenfield site and take over responsibility for 260 staff, as well as securing a 10-year, $1.6bn drug development contract.
In a report published earlier this year, Biocrossroads notes that Indiana is one of the few areas of the US that has the access to skilled staff and infrastructure to tap into the growth in outsourcing currently taking place across the pharmaceutical sector.
Storage and logistics is a focus area for the state’s contract service providers. Along with MD Logistics, other local players in this area include BioConvergence, BioStorage, Fedex, Krauter Solutions, Schenker and Sentry Logistic Solutions.
MD Logistics, along with its sister companies MD Packaging and MD Express, provides contract warehousing, inventory management, fulfillment, distribution, packaging, transportation, and global freight forwarding.
The news “builds on [Indiana’s] strengths in logistics and life sciences and further strengthens our position as a hub for these growing industries," said Indiana's Lieutenant Governor Becky Skillman.
