"We need more manufacturing space so we can compete for more clients and larger contracts," Zamiara said. Emergent BioSolutions projects revenue of $100 million for 2004, compared with $60 million last year.
"We're definitely growing," Zamiara said. BioPort has been the federal government's only supplier of anthrax vaccine. But the company suffered a setback recently when the Department of Health and Human Services announced plans to order 75 million doses of anthrax vaccine from California-based VaxGen Inc. Although VaxGen's experimental vaccine has yet to be fully cleared for use, the order was far in excess of the order for 5 million doses that BioPort received.
Emergent BioSolutions Inc. plans to use its new 150,000-square-foot building for making anthrax vaccine. The company expects to employ as many as 400 people and invest $95 million in Frederick.
(Photos Michael Williamson -- The Washington Post)
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VaxGen got the order in part because the government "didn't think we could make enough vaccine" for it, Zamiara said. The Frederick plant will allow the company to manufacture an additional 100 million doses a year, showing "that we've figured out ways to expand," he said.
El-Hibri said BioPort hopes to sell anthrax vaccine to first responders in Florida, Louisiana and Maryland and the governments of Taiwan, Germany and Canada.
Zamiara recalled Thompson's objections to the financial package as frustrating.
Thompson, who said he is proud to have voted against every tax incentive package placed before the Board of County Commissioners, said: "I welcome BioPort with open arms. But I'm only willing to offer a handshake, not a handout."
Thompson conceded that his is a lone voice, as Frederick clamors to enter the biotech big leagues. "Generally . . . if you put the tag 'economic development' on it, it's going to pass," he said.
Boyer, who championed the BioPort deal, said: "We look at the big picture. The benefits to the community as a whole are going to be long term."
