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Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

Berkshire Sterile Manufacturing To Establish Biopharmaceutical Campus In Lee, Massachusetts

08/21/2014
Berkshire Sterile Manufacturing, Inc., a biopharmaceutical startup company, will buy and renovate portions of a 116,000-square-foot building in Lee, Massachusetts. Renovation plans for a new manufacturing facility include clean rooms, labs, and work rooms for product formulation, final inspection, and packaging.

The biopharmaceutical firm plans to focus on contract manufacturing sterile drugs in the pre-clinical and clinical phases for pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device companies at its new facility. Berkshire Sterile’s services will include the filling of syringes, vials, cartridges, and dual chamber devices and also provide formulation development, terminal sterilization, freeze-drying, analytical chemistry and microbiological testing, quality assurance, and stability studies.

As an incentive, MassDevelopment issued a $4,083,000 bond on behalf of the company, which will use bond proceeds to acquire its new facility and install new drug manufacturing equipment. MassDevelopment enhanced this financing with mortgage and equipment insurance guarantees. Berkshire Bank purchased the bond.

“Through our financing programs, MassMEC, and the AMP it up! campaign, MassDevelopment is committed to supporting growth in the manufacturing sector in Massachusetts, and projects such as Berkshire Sterile Manufacturing’s new facility in Lee help us accomplish that goal,” said MassDevelopment President/CEO Marty Jones. “This bond will help Berkshire Sterile create manufacturing job opportunities to the Berkshire region and bolster the Commonwealth’s biopharmaceutical manufacturing sector.”

The company’s principals founded and operated Hyaluron Inc. in Burlington in 1999, which received a MassDevelopment Emerging Technology Fund loan in 2005, until Albany Molecular Research Inc. acquired the business in 2010. According to Mass Development, Berkshire Sterile’s owners and operators have extensive experience and relationships in the sterile drug manufacturing industry as a result of their experience. Berkshire Sterile plans to attract customers with superior quality and service at its state-of-the-art production facility in Lee.

“We are excited to work with MassDevelopment again,” said the company’s CEO, Shawn Kinney. “MassDevelopment was key to our success with our prior company and their participation with Berkshire Bank will allow us to create jobs in an exciting industry which is new to Western Massachusetts.”

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