The Pharmaceutical Development Center (PDC) has announced plans to construct a new research and development laboratory and manufacturing facility in the Faber Place Executive Park. Ground-breaking is set for March with construction to be completed by January.

The PDC was established by 1979 by the MUSC College of Pharmacy to provide an industrial pharmacy educational experience for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as to conduct contractual development services on behalf of the pharmaceutical industry.

In the early 1990s, a strategic change occurred within the pharmaceutical industry. Economic and competitive pressures forced pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to downsize their work forces, and yet continue to bring new products to market on rapid time lines. This resulted in a dramatic increase in “outsourcing” a larger portion of their pharmaceutical development work to other companies.

Recognizing that there was enormous business potential if it could capture a portion of this outsourcing market, the administration of MUSC and the College of Pharmacy resolved to expand the contractual services offered by the PDC. Therefore, in November 1994, the MUSC Board of Trustees approved the formation of the Pharmaceutical Education and Development Foundation to manage the PDC with a focus toward obtaining and conducting development projects.

Today the PDC employs a staff of 25 people and operates as a full-service pharmaceutical development facility. It provides services in dosage form design and formulation, the preparation of clinical supplies for human trials and evaluations, as well as analytical development and stability evaluations. Its laboratory is licensed by the FDA as a fully-certified and compliant facility for the commercial manufacture of pharmaceutical products. It currently manufactures one commercialized product used in the treatment of drug addiction and hopes to add to its commercial portfolio in the near future.

The rapid growth of development projects within the PDC has resulted in the operation reaching capacity in its current laboratory within the MUSC College of Pharmacy. In addition to the physical facility its growth plans call for the addition of approximately 35 new positions during the next five years.

“The continued success of the PDC will also enhance the business climate of the Charleston area,” according to James W. Warren Jr., Ph.D., president and CEO of the center. “The reputation of the Medical University of South Carolina as a premier research institution and the extensive pharmaceutical industry contacts of the PDC will help to attract new pharmaceutical and biotechnology enterprises to the area.” To that end, the PDC is already cooperating with the Charleston Regional Development Alliance and the South Carolina Department of Commerce. The PDC has also formed alliances with other pharmaceutical enterprises in an effort to form a stronger pharmaceutically-based infrastructure within South Carolina.