The company has invested $1m in the site, which will serve the state’s pharmaceutical and contract research organisations (CROs) that are increasingly requiring cold-storage services.
Prior to completion of the new facility, which will employ 75 people by 2012, MD Logistics served its pharmaceutical clients from a 22,000 sq ft facility located near to the new site.
However, with biologics making up an increasing proportion of companies’ portfolios, MD Logistics has decided another facility specifically targeting pharmaceutical clients is required.
Mark Sell, CEO of MD Logistics, said: “The commissioning of the new cooler allows us to respond quickly in improving and expanding our services to customers in the growing biologic medicine and life sciences industry in Indiana. We are hearing from members of the pharmaceutical industry with needs for additional climate-controlled facilities.”
The expansion of MD Logistics’ facility is inline with BioCrossroads, Indiana's public-private life sciences body, initiative to portray the state as ideal as a US distribution hub.
BioCrossroads believes that Indiana’s central location makes it an ideal base for US distribution operations and is promoting this in an attempt to attract companies to the state.
The 2008 BIO report for Indiana reported that the number of pharmaceutical and medical device companies dipped between 2001 and 2006, although total employment rose.
However, this has been partially offset by the boom in the number of research, testing and medical laboratories research establishments, which rose by almost 33 per cent over the same period.
Covered under this group are companies like Covance, which leads the state’s outsourcing specialists and continues to expand in Indiana, through deals such as the one it struck with Eli Lilly last year.