July 1, 2011

Hipra to build US headquarters and vaccine production facility

Laboratorios Hipra, based in Amer, Spain, will begin construction of a new facility at the Iowa State University Research Park in Ames, Iowa, US this fall.

The facility will serve as Hipra's US headquarters, and will be researching new product developments while producing, manufacturing, bottling, and distributing animal vaccines.

Dan Culhane, President and CEO of the Ames Chamber of Commerce, explained that Hipra is trying to penetrate the US, which is the largest market in the world for animal health products.

"They selected Ames over the Kansas City region, in large part due to the fact that Iowa State University, National Centers for Animal Health, ISU Research Park and a whole host of other types of infrastructure that are important to animal vaccine production will be here," said Culhane.

Culhane explained that the new facility may occupy as many as 100,000 square feet (9,290 square metres) in the ISU Research Park, and Hipra's excecutives would like the facility to be producing vaccines by the first part of 2013.

While construction of the new facility is underway, the company will conduct product research in the ISU Research Park's incubator space.