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Biopharma on Bayou Teche Amid Iberia’s cane fields, expansion enables a new industry

By Christine Payton for La Louisiane, The Magazine of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

An area in south Louisiana known for its sugarcane co-ops and winding Bayou Teche is set to grow the state’s newest economic sector.

Two new projects in Iberia Parish will create a biopharmaceutical corridor with research and drug manufacturing that will impact lives across the globe.

In late 2022, UL Lafayette and Iberia Parish officials announced the expansion of the University’s New Iberia Research Center and the construction of the Iberia BioInnovation Accelerator in the Progress Point Business Park near NIRC.

Both projects are the result of a nearly $50 million investment of state capital outlay funds brought to Acadiana by its legislative leaders. Nearly $25 million will lead to the creation of a Level 3 biosafety lab at NIRC – the nation’s largest non-human primate center – that will enable advanced on-site research with infectious diseases. More than $22 million will help develop the BioInnovation Accelerator drug manufacturing facility at Progress Point.

A Level 3 biosafety lab at NIRC will have global implications in combating infectious diseases. During the COVID-19 pandemic, NIRC played a critical role in the development of the Pfizer vaccine – the world’s first widely available coronavirus vaccine and the first to win FDA approval.

This life-saving measure, however, was delayed three months because final testing could not be conducted at NIRC’s Level 2 facility. A Level 3 facility will eliminate such delays.

The BioInnovation Accelerator will transform the research and clinical trial data into real-world pharmaceuticals through manufacturing. The pharmaceuticals will then be brought to market and to households, said Dr. Joseph Savoie, UL Lafayette president.

“In a biopharmaceutical corridor such as the one that will be created in Iberia Parish – with the combined power of NIRC and the BioInnovation Accelerator – you can envision a future in which a drug is taken from research to testing to manufacturing to the marketplace with each step taking place within about 5 miles of each other.”

Savoie added: “A new biopharmaceutical sector in south Louisiana is not just good for the local economy. It’s good for humanity in every corner of the world.”

Preliminary economic impacts include the creation of nearly 550 new jobs with $10.6 million in annual tax revenues for Iberia Parish. The total economic output is estimated to be $144.3 million.

“The promise of what these projects can bring to our parish is something we’ve never seen,” said M. Larry Richard, Iberia Parish president. “The expansion of NIRC and the creation of the BioInnovation Accelerator are game-changers for our economy and for our people.”

Both projects are expected to be completed in the next two years, but plans don’t stop there.

The Acadiana Planning Commission and the University are working to leverage NIRC’s capabilities once the Level 3 lab is operational.

APC secured a $500,000 federal grant to pursue a biopharmaceutical manufacturing cluster in Iberia Parish. UL Lafayette supplied $125,000 in match funding for the grant and is working with the planning commission to attract drug manufacturers who can utilize NIRC’s future Level 3 lab for development and testing.

Dr. Ramesh Kolluru is UL Lafayette’s vice president for Research, Innovation and Economic Development. He said the University and Iberia Parish leaders first introduced the idea for the biopharmaceutical corridor – with the NIRC expansion and the construction of the BioInnovation Accelerator as its nucleus – about a year ago to the Acadiana legislative delegation and area economic development agencies.

“The realization of these projects is transformational for the University, Iberia Parish, the region and Louisiana,” Kolluru said. “None could have happened without people coming together for the greater good of where we live and also for the greater good of the lives around the globe that will be impacted.”

This article first appeared in the Spring 2023 issue of La Louisiane, The Magazine of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

Photo credit: Doug Dugas