Buffalo Medical Innovation and Commercialization Hub at Buffalo Niagara
Medical Campus
Buffalo Billion Investment: $50M
A new center for innovation in health and life sciences on the Buffalo Niagara
Medical Campus. Albany Molecular Research Inc. (AMRI) will anchor the
development on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, which will catalyze more
development in the health and life sciences industry. This investment will
leverage a $200M private investment.
The project is the establishment of a shared pharmaceutical research and
development facility known as the Buffalo Medical Innovation and
Commercialization Hub.
June 1, 2015

AMRI announces collaborative, three-year agreement with
HarkerBIO, a Buffalo-based start-up company, to jointly
market their services to international pharmaceutical and
biotech firms. Under the agreement, AMRI gains access to
HarkerBIO technology that helps companies better
understand the three-dimensional structures of diseases,
while HarkerBIO’s customers benefit from AMRI’s global
reach and its integrated drug-discovery platforms. Financial
terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
HarkerBIO was founded in 2014 and grew out of technology
developed at the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research
Institute, where the company is located. HarkerBIO is
collaborating with the University at Buffalo’s Center for
Computational Research and, as part of its participation in
the Start-Up NY program, would add five jobs, doubling its
workforce, and invest $500,000 in its new facility.

June 17, 2015

AMRI and PerkinElmer Inc. announce strategic
collaboration at the Buffalo Medical Innovation and
Commercialization Hub.
AMRI, the drug discovery company and the hub’s anchor
tenant, has moved between five and 10 employees to its
space on the seventh floor of the new Conventus
medical research and office building on the Medical
Campus and originally committed to hiring 75
employees in Buffalo. PerkinElmer likely will bring 10
employees initially to Buffalo to work with AMRI in the
Conventus space, and could employ as many as 75
workers on site as the project grows.

 AMRI, a publicly traded company headquartered in Albany,
works on a contract basis to help companies and scientists
take promising drug therapies from the lab to the clinical-trial
stage, in addition to developing its own intellectual property.
The company has 1,300 employees and is best known for
developing the active ingredient in the allergy medication
Allegra.
PerkinElmer, based in Waltham, Mass., makes instruments
for environmental testing and has a human health division
that makes products for screening of newborns for infectious
diseases, among other equipment used in the drugdevelopment process. The company has roughly 7,700
employees and reported revenues of $2.2 billion last year.
In Buffalo, PerkinElmer will provide and manage equipment
for AMRI and to future partners in the biotech hub. The state
investment in the project includes the purchase of some
PerkinElmer equipment, while the company also will provide
its own equipment for the hub, an investment by PerkinElmer
that could reach into the tens of millions of dollars over time.
AMRI is preparing to open the research space in Conventus,
and a grand opening of the AMRI and PerkinElmer facility is
likely to come soon.
January 14, 2016

AMRI announced that it signed a collaboration agreement
with the New York Center for Nanomedicine Research
(NYCNMR) to co-market their nanotechnology services to
global pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients.
As part of the three-year agreement, AMRI gains access to
NYCNMR’s nanoscale therapeutic and formulation services.
NYCNMR’s customers will benefit from AMRI’s suite of
integrated drug discovery solutions, which includes expertise
in assay method development, high-throughput screening,
high-content screening, hit-to-lead-medicinal chemistry,
computer-aided drug discovery and in vitro DMPK assays,
as well as access to its proprietary ASCC small molecule
and natural products collections.
Housed at the University at Buffalo’s Clinical and
Translational Research Center on the Buffalo Niagara
Medical Campus, NYCNMR is working with pharmaceutical
companies, academic researchers and corporate clients on
commercialization efforts by applying nanotechnology to
clinical applications.

 Jobs to Date

AMRI – 21 FTE
PE – 6 FTE
Harker Bio – 5 FTE
NYCNMR – 6 FTE, 3 Part Time, 5 Research Interns
Total 38 FTE (3 Part Time, 5 Research Interns)*
*- Per agreement between AMRI and CNSE, AMRI to create
55 jobs within seven years of dated agreement (9/12/13) –
Phase I. The company would then create an additional 20
jobs in Phase II, subject to a Phase II agreement between
CNSE and AMRI. The remaining jobs to be created by
companies attracted to the Hub by AMRI.