San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Tax abatement for biomedical venture in talks
Heat Biologics is seeking a break on local taxes to expand its manufacturing operations in San Antonio with a new venture focused on developing cancer-fighting drugs.
In exchange, the North Carolina-based company is offering an economic investment of more than $24 million.
Bexar County commissioners discussed offering a 75 percent tax abatement over the next 10 years valued at just over half a million dollars to entice the biopharmaceutical company to bring its operations here. The court has directed its staff to continue negotiations.
City officials also are negotiating a potential incentive package with the firm.
Opening its new subsidiary, Scorpion Biological Services, in San Antonio would create 44 new bioscience jobs with starting salaries of $50,000 within the next three years, according to Heat Biologics.
That is 60 percent above the area’s median wage, according to the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation, which pushed the company to consider San Antonio over other potential sites.
If the local incentive packages are approved, the plan is to build a research facility for Scorpion’s contract bioanalytical, diagnostic and manufacturing services at the Texas Research & Technology Foundation Merchant’s Ice Complex, near the East Side on E. Houston St. and N. Cherry St.
Cleanroom suites, laboratories and office space would be added to the complex, which houses VelocityTX Innovation Center and BioBridge Global’s GenCure lab.
Scorpion’s general manager, David Halverson, has 30 years of experience running contract development and manufacturing organizations, which allow drugmakers to outsource those duties and focus on marketing breakthrough therapies.
The new 21,000-squarefoot facility could be completed in one year, according to the company’s application submitted to the Bexar County’s Economic and Community Development Department.
Once the building is finished, Scorpion will develop in-house immuno-assays, create biomarkers and operate labs that meet the strictest guidelines to ensure the manufacturing process is of high standards with quality control.
Heat Biologics CEO Jeff Wolf said Scorpion would add significant capabilities to its existing operations by tripling its analytical testing footprint and adding manufacturing space.
BioMedSAPresident Heather Hanson hailed the move as a “huge win for San Antonio.”
Hanson, who runs the nonprofit advocacy organization that promotes the city’s bioscience and health care industry, said the precision medicine venture would be a nice addition to the growing work in this new field.
The expansion would be Heat Biologics’ second San Antonio-based subsidiary after Pelican Therapeutics relocated here in 2017 to focus on developing antibody therapies designed to activate the immune system in cancer patients.