January 21, 2010 -  Alabama continues to grow its industries, celebrating the opening this month in Birmingham SurModic's new 90,000 sq. ft. biotechnology headquarters and plant.

SurModics opens Birmingham drug development center
By Michael Tomberlin -- The Birmingham News
January 21, 2010, 2:34PM

SurModics Pharmaceuticals and Birmingham's biotechnology industry got a booster shot today with the opening of a new drug development and manufacturing facility in Oxmoor Valley.

Gov. Bob Riley and other officials joined SurModics Pharmaceuticals President Art Tipton to open the new operation, which already has multimillion-dollar deals in place to produce new drug delivery formulas for Roche and Genentech, among others.

Eden Prairie, Minn.-based SurModics Inc., parent company to Birmingham-based SurModics Pharmaceuticals, invested millions of dollars and spent 21 months converting the former Parisian and Saks corporate headquarters and warehouse into the new 90,000-square-foot headquarters and plant.  

SurModics Pharmaceuticals -- formerly Brookwood Pharmaceuticals -- was able to consolidate its Birmingham operations into one facility and still have room for future growth.

Among the first projects at the facility is making new drug delivery formulas of Roche and Genentech's Lucentis to treat ophthalmic diseases.

City, county and state incentives were used to attract the expansion.

"This development is evidence of the Birmingham region's continued leadership in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry," Riley said in a statement. "It also validates Alabama's role in helping home-grown businesses compete internationally. SurModics is a great example of a successful business model we need to see replicated."