United Therapeutics

United Therapeutics

Project Size: 28,000 SF
Schedule: Feb 2019
# Of Employees: 200
Cost: $42M
Location: Silver Spring, MD

United Therapeutics (UT), a public biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development and commercialization of products to address patients' unmet needs. UT created the Dinutuximab-Dedicated Oncology Medical and Analytical Laboratory (DDOMAL) to expand commercial manufacturing capacity for its pediatric high-risk neuroblastoma therapy.

This project inspired a Montgomery County zoning amendment that enables life science development in high-density areas. The amendment allows the space required for equipment like HVAC and chillers—called NUBESA, or normally unoccupied building equipment support area—not to count against the square footage building occupancy limits. For DDOMAL, this allowed a 13,000 SF office density building to become a 28,000 SF lab facility. Companies like TCR2 and REGENXBIO subsequently benefitted from this zoning amendment. DDOMAL also set the stage for streamlining the site and sketch plan processes for the Biohealth Priority Campus Plan.

This facility won the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering's Facility of the Year Award (FOYA) in 2020.

"Facility Logix has a really deep understanding of the life science industry and they also understand the nuts and bolts of the design and construction process for complex facilities... It's really hard to find organizations that have both of those things, very few can marry both of those uniquely challenging worlds of design and construction and running a project, and the life science industry."

- Thomas Kaufman, Associate Vice President, United Therapeutics Corporation