A Chinese biopharmaceutical company is planning to move into Montgomery County at the Shady Grove Life Sciences Center, an announcement that officials say will bring dozens of new jobs to the county over the next three years. The Tasly Group will open a 430,000 square-foot production facility and training center specializing in traditional Chinese medicine.
Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley made the announcement of the $40 million investment during the first leg of a 10-day trade mission through Asia, alongside Tasly Group Chairman Dr. Yan Xijun. The company estimates the project will create at least 25 jobs within three years, according to officials at the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development.
The Tasly Group hopes the plant will attract other Chinese biotech companies, according to Steve Silverman, director of the Montgomery County Department of Economic Development. The 300-acre Shady Grove biotech center is already home to other pharmaceutical leaders, including Human Genome Sciences and Otsuka America Pharmaceuticals, as well as Food and Drug Administration offices.
Tasly Group leaders said they chose the Shady Grove biotech center to leverage nearby resources such as the National Institutes of Health
as the company conducts clinical trials of a new drug called Compound Danshen Dripping Pills, developed to treat and prevent coronary disease. The company wants the drug to be the first traditional Chinese medicine product to be an FDA-approved pharmaceutical.
“There’s a lot of different places you can go in America to do biotech, but obviously we have a huge advantage in Montgomery County with the infrastructure we have here,” said Patrick Lacefield, spokesman for County Executive Ike Leggett. “We’re going to keep working on that investment while the rest of the economy tries to pick up.”
As county leaders try to lure new businesses to Montgomery — which has lost several high-profile corporate headquarters to Fairfax County SEmD much of the focus has been on bringing a Costco to Wheaton. The County Council approved a $4 million grant to bring the discount retailer to Montgomery, which Leggett said will help transform the shuttered shops and strip malls in Wheaton. Each investment will bring its own benefits to Montgomery, Silverman said.
“Tasly is a biotech company. It’s going to create high-paying, high-knowledge jobs. Costco is going to create a high number of retail jobs and provide enormous benefits to Wheaton,” Silverman said. “When thousands of people are coming to Costco, they’re going to stop at all the other small businesses in the area, too.”
