Biopol Laboratory Inc., a 30-year-old supplier of raw biological materials used to make allergy vaccines, plans to construct a 45,000-square-foot building in Post Falls and to move its operations there from two locations in the Spokane area.


The building still is in the conceptual design stage, but will be built on 12.5 acres that Biopol bought in the Riverbend Commerce Park, south of Interstate 90, says Miles Guralnick, president of Biopol.


Guralnick declines to disclose the estimated construction cost, but says Biopol expects to start work there next spring with a goal of occupying the building by the end of 2008. He says that because the building would house different types and sizes of manufacturing equipment for different products, it likely will be as high as three stories in some areas, and less tall in other areas.


A firm from Denmark, where Biopols parent company is located, is providing engineering services for the building, but an architect and contractor havent been named yet.


Biopol currently leases three small buildings in the east 300 block of Pacific Avenue, in Spokane, and three more small buildings in the Dishman-Mica area. Altogether, the six buildings have much less floor space than the new building will have, Guralnick says. Biopol also owns a 680-acre farm near Plummer, Idaho, where it grows plants from which it harvests its pollens and other raw materials, which are processed at its other sites.


Guralnick says, The market for allergy vaccines has been growing, and thats a major reason for the expansion.


Biopol harvests timothy hay, which it grows at the farm to supply pollen for the making of an under-the-tongue-hay-fever vaccine called Grazax now, says Guralnick.


Biopols parent, ALK-Abello A/S, has just been approved to market the Grazax vaccine in 27 European countries, and Biopol is that companys sole provider of raw materials for the product, he says.


Its a pretty exciting time where we are experiencing true growth, says Guralnick. We manufacture all the raw material for Grazax here, and there are more allergy vaccines in the pipeline where we supply the raw materials as well. The next one to be released will probably be a vaccine for the dust-mite allergy, and we are ALK-Abellos only supplier of raw materials for that product as well.


He says Biopol currently employs 24 people, but expects the company will add three to five additional workers each year.


Biopol was bought in 1999 by Vespa Laboratories Inc., of Spring Mills, Pa., a raw-source supplier of bee venom, which is a subsidiary of ALK-Abello, he says.


Guralnick declines to disclose revenue figures for Biopol, but says ALK-Abello had revenue of about $250 million last year. It employs about 1,500 people.